


The Hunger

by LiamLordofTrash



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Asgard, Betrayal, Cerebro, Character Death, F/M, Hurt, M/M, Sanctum Sanctorum (Marvel), Violence, X Mansion, lying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-05-31 08:01:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 24,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15115154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiamLordofTrash/pseuds/LiamLordofTrash
Summary: When a zombie outbreak begins in New York, it's up to the Earth's mightiest heros to stop them. Unfortunately the first ones there are usually the first ones bitten.Kind of like Marvel Zombies but in the MCU, Ships aren't in it for a long time but they will be there





	1. The Begining of the End

It was their job. That was the way he rationalilzed it anyways. The Avengers were first on the scene with everything. So he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. But Tony hoped he was allowed to be upset about it. They had gone in, without him. They didn’t need him, he was one of the big guns. This was just a small group of maniacs with some sickness biting people. If there was anything Tony was grateful for, it was that he had asked Peter to help him with something. Otherwise he would be one of them. 

“We need to figure out where to go,” Pepper said. “We can’t stay here forever.” 

“Alright, we gotta get to my workshop,” Tony said. 

“Why?” Rhodey asked.

“I’ve got enough suits that each of us can wear one- and they can’t bite through armor,” Tony said. “If we can get there without getting bit we’ll be alright until the suits die for sure.” 

“Alright,” Pepper said. Peter curled up underneath a desk, hugging his legs tightly. Tony looked around. Rhodey was disabled, Peter was a teen, and he felt the need to protect Pepper regardless of what happened.

“You all stay here, I’ll get to the lab.” 

“Uh no,” said Pepper. “We’re going together. You and me.” 

“Pepper I need you to-”

“I can stay with Peter because I can’t run,” Rhodey said. “I have a gun, and if anything gets in here I’ll deal with it.” 

“Alright,” Tony relented. At least Pepper would have his back. They walked towards the hall. Tony took a deep breath. They walked forwards together, into the hall. They moved quickly and  quietly. Tony didn’t know how many of them were in there, and the main cameras were down. The thermal monitors were the only thing that worked anymore, but the things weren’t warm enough to show up in the thermal. They knew only three things: the things were there, some people were still alive in the building other than them, and something unimaginably cold was on the third floor. It was so cold, whatever it was, that it made the rest of the building look hot on the monitors. Tony didn’t know what it was, but hoped it wasn’t one of those  things. 

He heard something. Pepper instinctively crouched a bit, and he did too. They waited and listened. The steps were distinct, and yet very purposeful. It sounded like a normal person to Tony. Someone trying to creep, someone potentially with a gun. Tony decided to risk it and tapped his foot against the wall in a pattern. 

“Are you alive?” he heard a voice ask- and he knew the other immediately. Bruce. 

“Yeah Bruce, it’s me,” Tony said. Bruce crept forwards. 

“Did any of the zombies bite you? Have you seen them yet?” asked Bruce.

“They’re not zombies, but we saw them. We haven’t been bitten though.”

“We?” Bruce asked, before seeing Pepper.

“How many more of you are there?” Bruce asked. “It’s just me.”

“Me, Pepper, Peter, and Rhodey,” said Tony. “We’ve lost contact with Happy. And we lost the main cameras, but thermal shows something really weird on the third floor.

“Something weird?”

“It’s so cold it makes everything around it look like it’s on fire.” 

“Holy shit. I know what that is- it’s  _ Loki. _ ”

“What?”

“That happened when we had him on the helicarrier too- he’s a frost giant remember?” 

“So Loki’s on the third floor? Why?” Pepper asked. 

“Thor,” Bruce said. “Probably.” 

“He came to get Thor?”

“They’ve been closer lately,” Bruce shrugged. 

“Does anyone know who all has been bitten? I know Clint-”

“He was the first.. I think Cap and Nat are down too,” Bruce said softly. “Sam could fly out of there though. And I trust Nat not to get bitten but I know Cap tried to talk Clint out of it.” 

“So for sure Cap and Clint,” Tony said.

“And the SHIELD Agents who tried to help them,” Pepper said softly. 

“We’re trying to get to my workshop to get some of my suits- they can protect us,” Tony said. 

“That’s a good idea. Should we get Loki and Thor?”

“We were going to have to go through that floor anyways, I was just hoping for some way to avoid it, but since it’s just Loki it won’t matter,” Tony said. 

“Never thought I’d hear that,” Bruce said. 

“Do you think the elevators are working?” Pepper asked.

“No, they’re down.” 

“Stairs it is,” Tony said. The three of them worked their way to the staircase in silence. They hadn’t seen anything. Maybe they weren’t in the building yet? But those things on the cameras… Tony didn’t know. They moved to the stairs quietly. They walked up them, Bruce in the front and Tony in the back. They moved as quietly as they could. The stairs were in good condition so they didn’t squeak. They made it to the third floor and Bruce stopped abruptly and Tony walked into Pepper and then fell back down the stairs. It made a loud noise. 

“Why did you stop?” Tony hissed, still trying to whisper. Bruce didn’t answer, instead he darted to the door and yanked it open. Then Tony saw what he had. A swarm of them, pouring out of the fourth floor. They had heard Tony fall. He got up and ran to the door, only then noticing his knee hurt. He hoped it wasn’t a real injury- that it was a sprain or a scrap or something. He launched himself through the door after Pepper. Pepper leaned forwards and grabbed the door, slamming it behind them. They struggled for a moment but Bruce, nearly turning into the Hulk, managed to break the door so it couldn’t be opened. 

“We won’t need to go back that way anyways,” Pepper said. They heard slamming against the door. 

“Look! It’s my friends!” Thor yelled, running towards them.

“Stay back from them! What if they have it?” hissed Loki. Thor stopped.  Tony looked around the room. Everywhere were smashed remains of those things. He had to focus on thinking of them as things- not people. Not people he might have known. He couldn’t. Thor had likely killed them all with his hammer. That wasn’t surprising. Tony got up. 

“None of us have been bitten,” Bruce said. “And Peter and Rhodey are still alive too. We have to get to Tony’s workshop so we can get the suits.” 

“Good idea,” said Thor. “See Loki-”

“That one’s  limping,” Loki said, drawing a knife from thin air and pointing at Tony. 

“I wasn’t bitten I fell-”

“We have to know better than to trust them Thor!” Loki snapped. “Remember Hill? She said she wasn’t bitten and she was!”

“Hill? Maria Hill?” Pepper asked.

“Yes. And Fury and every other agent in this room,” Loki said. “And they all said they weren’t bitten.”

“Well it takes a moment to kick in, we can check,” Thor said. “If it’s a bite, we kill him. If it’s a bruise, we know he was telling the truth.” Loki moved forwards, shoved Tony into an office chair, and cut the leg of his pants off. It was a large, dark bruise. “See? He’s fine,” Thor said, helping him up. 

“I’m surprised Loki even checked,” Tony muttered. 

“As a Joten my body temperature is naturally too cold for the virus to infect me quickly. I would have enough time to cut off a limb if bitten. That is not so definite for my brother.” 

“So you care about him suddenly?” Tony asked.

“I told you, they get along a lot better now,” Bruce said. 

“Let’s go,” Thor said. 

“That’s a really bad bruise,” Bruce said. “You might have actually hurt your leg.”

“Yeah I actually hurt it-”

“No I mean like bad.”

“He’ll slow us down,” Loki said. “We should kill him.”

“Nonsense,” Thor said, lifting Tony over his shoulder. “He’s no trouble, really. I lift you all the time, brother.” Tony wasn’t exactly happy to be carried around like that, but it was better than Loki’s idea. “Which way is the lab?”

“I can show you,” Pepper said. Loki stayed close to Pepper in the front. Bruce was somewhat in the middle, and Thor stayed back a little, preparing for another attack. They walked into the lab, and Thor set Tony down in a rolling chair and pushed him. Tony used his watch to call his suit to him, and stood up, walking into it. The suit didn’t support the injury very well, but that was alright. 

“Alright so, the War Machine suit is built to deal with Rhodey’s paralysis, so no one else can really use it- it would override what you tell your legs to do and probably crush them. Then we have this old one, and that one.” Tony realized there definitely weren’t enough for everyone. “There’s… Not quite.”

“My brother and I will be fine, then there’s Pepper and Banner. It’s alright,” Thor said. 

“No, there’s Peter and Rhodey too.”

“So then Rhodey has the War Machine suit and…” Thor looked around. “Well what about that wearhouse of suits you have?” 

“We lost contact with them, everything’s down. I can’t get them here and I’m not leaving anyone out. Especially not Peter.”

“What about his.. Spider suit?” Bruce asked. 

“That’s at his house.”

“So we go get it from his house,” Loki said. “Then there’s not a problem.”

“But he’ll be exposed until then,” Tony said. 

“None of them can fly. Fly him to his house or put him somewhere,” Thor said. 

“I don’t want to.. Look I don’t know if his aunt is dead or alive and if she’s one of those now I don’t want him to see it.”

“So we’ve gotta put him somewhere. We would have to go somewhere anyways,” said Bruce. 

“Where would be safe?” Pepper asked.

“What about the wizard guild?” Thor asked. 

“We don’t know if they’re dead or alive,” Tony said. 

“Do you think that once somebody with some kind of powers was bitten they would still have those powers?” asked Bruce. 

“Why?”

“Because I don’t wanna deal with zombie wizards.”

“What is a zombie? Is that what those are?” Thor asked.

“Basically,” Bruce said.

“I assure you- that wizard guild would be a very safe place- the whole point of all those wizards is to protect it,” Loki said. “And even though they’re all pathetic, these things are much more so.” 

“We have to be careful, we can’t just do things randomly- we can’t all just lose an arm like you,” Tony said to Loki. 

“Well, then my brother and I can go and check the wizard guild with the aid of young Peter while you retrieve his suit. That way if he has to see the undead then at least it’s not anyone he cared about that much.” 

“There’s no chance in hell that I would let Peter out of my sight with  _ Loki, _ ” Tony snapped. 

“Then I’ll go with Thor and Loki and Peter goes with you in a suit,” Pepper said.

“Or Peter goes with us in a suit,” Thor said.

“Or what if Rhodey and Thor go to the wizards with Peter and Loki goes with us?” Bruce asked. They heard a crackle as one of the walkie talkies off the shield agents started to make noise, followed by all the others. 

“I don’t know where you guys are, but you need to get here fast! They’re almost through the door,” Rhodey snapped. They heard a loud thumping. 

“We’ll talk later.” Bruce and Pepper clumsily put on two of the suits and Tony fired the War Machine suit out of the window, hoping the coordinates were right. He turned to them and started to explain the sutis. 

“We don’t have time for this,” Thor decided, and he grabbed Bruce around the waist. Loki locked arms with him and held Pepper, and Thor used his free hand to swing his hammer, sending them all through the walls after the War Machine suit. 

“They’re attracted to noise you idiot!” Tony yelled after them, before taking off through the hole Thor had made. The War Machine suit wrapped around Rhodey quickly, and Thor dropped Bruce, Loki, and Pepper in exchange for picking up Peter. 

“Thor! You’re back!” Peter exclaimed.

“Yes  my small friend. Tony, you have no choice now we’re going,” Thor yelled, grabbing Loki and swinging off again.

“You bastard get back here!” There was no chance Thor heard him. 

“How do I do this?” Bruce asked. 

“Don’t worry with the blasters, Rhodey and I have got that, just punch them!” A small swarm of former shield agents flooded in, biting the suits and attacking everyone, but they were unable to bite them. Tony closed his eyes tight. He knew them. He knew all of them. Vaguely, but it was still enough. He blew one’s head clean off, and found that still didn’t kill it. He wasn’t sure they could be killed. Marcus, an intern. Dead. Sheril, who brought them all snacks during meetings. He just blew her head off. He cringed as he saw Fury. This was bad. He needed to get the others out of there. He used an override code to control the other suits, including Rhodey’s though he didn’t exactly intend to, and forced them all to fly away. It was bad. 

  
  



	2. Hiding

Peter wasn’t exactly certain where he and Thor and Loki were going, but that was alright. He trusted Thor. Thor was strong, and he was going to make everything okay. Peter wished he was that strong. He was close to breaking down, close to tears. He didn’t know what was happening but people were dying, people were dying everywhere. He wanted to see his aunt, just to be sure she was alright. He would lose his shit if she died- she was the only parent he had left. What about Ned? Was he alright? Peter wouldn’t see him again and he wouldn’t see his aunt or MJ or any of his other friends or even the people he hated-

“Relax,” Loki said. “You’re panicking.” He was probably right. “I’ll knock on the door, you protect him.” Loki walked to the door and knocked a few times, but no one answered. 

“Perhaps we should go,” Thor said.

“No, I swear I heard something in there-”

“That may be a better reason to go,” Thor said. Loki hit the door one more time and suddenly it opened and he was attacked by a flying cloth. It threw him back and Strange stepped forwards, with an axe in his hands, ready to fight until he saw it was them.

“Cloak, drop him,” Strange said. The cloak did so and then returned to his shoulders. 

“We need a place to stay.”

“Who all is we?” Strange asked, ushering them inside.

“Me, my brother, young Peter, Tony, Pepper, Bruce, and Rhodey.” 

“Who all is here already?” Loki asked. 

“Just me,” Stephen said. “Wong had to go back to Kamar-Taj, this is my Sanctum to guard.” 

“What if you were bitten?”

“Then it’s best there aren’t other people around,” Stephen said with a shrug. 

“Is it safe here?” Peter asked, sticking close to Thor’s side. 

“Safer than anywhere else in New York,” Stephen said. “But still not perfectly safe.”  They walked around the large building. 

“We need to go and get our friends and tell them everything here is safe,” said Thor. 

“They wouldn’t trust me,” said Loki. “You’ll have to tell them.”

“Yes.. I don’t want to drag Peter back out. Dr. Strange, can my brother and young Peter stay here until I return?” 

“Of course,” Strange said. 

“Then I will head out,” Thor began, “And tell them the good news.” 

 

Tony went inside the building, the others staying out to wait for Thor and watch for another horde. New York was not a quiet place, so the sudden silence was deafening. Tony worked his way through the house carefully and quietly. He heard something. May could still be alive. He had to at least check. He walked towards the source of the noise and heard an awful crunching. He moved closer, crouching down. He saw May, on the floor. He didn’t know what she was doing. Hiding maybe? He moved closer, less worried about scaring her than her potentially being a threat. He reached a hand out to tap her shoulder before he noticed that her tongue was hanging out of the bottom of her throat, spilling blood on the floor as she continued to crunch down on a dog. He  pulled back, his breath catching in his throat. He felt like he was going to faint. What should he do? Try to kill her? He knew what worked in zombie movies, but this wasn’t a movie. He decapitated one, that should have done it. Maybe through the brain? He raised his hand to the back of her head, firing a repulsor ray through it. She fell to the floor and twitched, but she definitely wasn’t dead. He did it twice more before she finally stopped moving. Maybe she had been dying the first time. He didn’t know. He felt sick to his stomach. 

He made his way to Peter’s room. The door was locked. He sighed and tried to kick it down when he heard a sound from inside. Something was in Peter’s room. He left the room and went to May’s where he grabbed the gun from her nightstand. He felt ridiculous in the armor with a gun, but the less he used the repulsors the less energy he used. The more energy they used, the quicker the armor would run out of energy and they’d be left defenseless again. He needed to tell the others that. 

He went back to the door and kicked it in, pointing the gun. He heard a terrified shriek and in the corner, curled in a ball, was Peter’s friend Ned. 

“Holy shit- Kid you’re alive?” Tony asked, more so trying to confirm it with himself than Ned. 

“Miss Aunt May said that something was wrong and something was happening and that she was gonna go and get Peter and that I should stay here and lock the door and not go out and not let anyone in and I heard screaming and I thought that-”

“Calm down, calm down. No one has bitten you?”

“Why would someone bite me? What’s happening-”

“Look, I don’t know, I’m just here to get Peter’s suit and get out of here, and you’re coming with me we’re going somewhere safe-”

“But Miss Aunt May said that-”

“I’m Ironman- you can trust me,” Tony said. 

“Is Miss Aunt May coming with us?” Ned asked. Tony paused.

“No.” 

“Why?” Ned asked. Tony opened his mouth and then shut it again. What should he say? Ned  wasn’t a kid. He could handle it. 

“Alright, you know all those zombie apocalypse movies you and Peter used to watch?” Tony asked. “That’s happening. Now. And Aunt May was bitten.” 

“Oh my God. Oh God, oh no-” Ned started to panic. 

“It’s alright,” Tony said. “Just come with us.” 

  
  


“So they decided that they wanted to cure death,” Strange said. “And in it they created these. They’re incredibly hard to kill. Destroying the brain works for most, but I worry what will happen if someone with powers is infected. The last thing we need is the Hulk running after us and slamming us all in his mouth.” Loki shuddered at the thought. He did not like Hulk. Banner was fine though. If Loki had it his way the Hulk as a separate entity wouldn’t exist, and it would just be something Banner could do. Thor wouldn’t agree with him. Thor liked them both. But he and Thor never agreed. That was alright. Thor was still his brother. 

Though he still nearly refused to think of Odin as his father. Sometimes he liked to imagine that he had been Frigga's daughter, and Thor’s half brother. He would never tell Thor about that, however, because he would find it ‘adorable’ and ‘proof that inside you just want love’. That wasn’t completely wrong or true. He wanted a family, sure, but that wasn’t all he wanted. But then, just as he and his brother had become close, as he felt he finally had a family- this happened. And he wasn’t going to let anything or anyone take that away. If someone was at risk for passing whatever disease the midgardians had so foolishly made to Thor, they would die. 

So he sat and he listened to Strange’s whole story about the scientists who had made a disease to cure cancer or something, and then it had backfired and made whatever this was. But in his recounting of this story, Strange had done two very foolish things. Firstly, he had made himself a potential threat to their safety. Secondly, he tried to tell the literal God of Lies and Mischief, a lie. Thor wouldn’t have noticed it, and it calmed the young Peter, but Loki knew it immediately. He was lying. But Loki could use that. So he waited until the young Peter was nearly asleep and he pulled the sorcerer aside.

“Can I talk to you for a moment? Somewhere else?” Loki asked.

“Sure?” Loki pulled him down the hall, away from the sleeping teenager. 

“I don’t want to ask what the truth is, because I don’t care. I just want you to know that I know you lied. And I know what you lied about. So here’s the thing. One. Don’t ever lie to  _ me  _ again. Two. Unless you want everyone to know what I know, you do what I say now.” Strange paused, shocked, clearly. “You can’t bargain your way out of this one.” 

“If I do what you say.. And I don’t lie to you again.. Will you actually keep my secret?” Strange asked. 

“Yes,” Loki said. And for once, he wasn’t lying. 

 


	3. New Comers

The Sanctum was crowded, but it did seem to be fairly safe. At least Tony hoped it was. There was some sort of magical barrier that kept the dead out. They had stayed there for a total of three days. They had run out of water and out of food. They would have to go out eventually. Unfortunately, the suits weren’t working anymore. Which meant they served as nothing more than human cocoons. 

“We have to go out,” Tony said. 

“We should stay here for protection,” Thor said.

“My brother is right,” Loki insisted. 

“You don’t need food as much as we do,” Bruce said. Tony knew it was coming. Loki glanced to Strange.

“We can wait another day or so, it’s not worth risking infection,” Strange said. Something was going on. Tony knew something was going on. He wondered for a while if Loki was controlling Strange the way he had Clint. It wouldn’t be easy to tell, Strange already had blue eyes. It was possible.

“We need to go,” Pepper agreed.

“You three are out voted,” Rhodey said. 

“Alright, Rhodey, Loki, and Bruce stay here with the kids,” Tony said. “Me, Stephen, Thor, and Pepper are going to get food.”  He decided to split them up, see what he could figure out. 

“Lady Pepper should not come,” Thor said. “She has no weapon.”

“I can-”

“Thor has a point,” Strange said. “The Hulk could also be useful, but without a weapon with some range he’s just a liability. Thor has his hammer, I have magic-”

“And I have a gun,” Tony said swiftly. He started to worry Thor may be getting along even better with Loki than before, and that the two Asgardians were up to something. It wouldn’t be too hard for two Asgardians to wedge someone between them and force them to do what they wanted the old fashioned way. They headed out the door regardless. Thor wasn’t as slick as Loki, and Tony could maneuver around him. 

“Where should we go?” Thor asked.

“The grocery store would be a good idea,” Tony said. “But a small one, so they’re be less people in it. But we’ll just have to go to one nearby because-” Thor started to pick him up- “Hey buddy I don’t know if I’ll survive the full force of that without a suit.” Thor paused. 

“You can fly, right?” Thor asked Strange.

“Yes- well levitate. With the cloak on.”

“You hold onto Tony, and follow me,” Thor said. Thor took off again, and Tony walked to Strange.

“Okay, so how are we gonna..?” Tony said, trying to find the proper way to hold onto Strange so that he could fly with him. Strange put an arm over Tony. 

“Cloak can you hold him?” Strange asked, and the cloak moved around Tony’s neck as well. “My hands- my hand won’t hold you, you’ll have to wrap an arm around my waist or something.” Tony hooked an arm around him and they floated up. They followed after Thor quickly. “I can sense where he went,” Strange said. Tony figured then was as good a time as ever.

“Why have you agreeing with the Asgardians so much? Like what did Loki do?” Tony asked. Tony could swear he saw Strange flinch for a moment, but he didn’t really seem to change expressions at the  same time. 

“I’m just used to not eating so often,” Strange said. “So I didn’t feel the hunger as much. I agreed with them because I agreed with them. Loki didn’t do anything.” Tony knew what it felt like to fly, but not without a suit, not the feeling of just suddenly being up and rushing over the city. He saw masses, masses of people wandering the streets, purposelessly. Tony slipped and nearly fell off, and Strange grabbed him by the waist and pulled him close, the cloak wrapping around him to make sure he didn’t fall when Strange’s hands fell.

“Oh shit! Thanks Strange,” Tony said. 

“I didn’t do to medical school to be called mister, either Dr. Strange or Stephen.”

“Thanks Stephen,” Tony said, deciding not to completely be agreeable. They came to the store. Tony held tight to the gun. They walked in slowly. They heard the shuffling of feet.

“Should we kill all of them and then take things?” asked Thor.

“Can we is a better question,” said Stephen. 

“What should we get?”

“Non perishable food and water,” Stephen said. 

“He’s right,” said Tony. They went into the store and Tony felt the need to cling to either Stephen or Thor. He picked Stephen. “I’ll go with Stephen,” he said, pulling the gun. They moved quietly around the corner. He had the gun, behind Stephen, right over his shoulder. They moved forwards gradually, heading to the soups and beans. Suddenly Tony’s gun was yanked away from him and he was slammed into the ground. Strange was next, yanked off his feet. They were pulled along the ground by invisible hands as they were yanked into a wall.  They were pulled up suddenly. The man grabbed Stephen by the neck and glared him down for a second. 

“I’ve seen some of what you can do,” the man said. “You can make a tracking spell?” The other man had a gun to Stephen’s head. The other man was alive though- in the real way. 

“Yes,” Stephen admitted. 

“Then you’ll help me.”

“What do-”

“You’ll help me or you’ll die!” the man snapped. “And everyone else with you will die.” 

“What do you want?”

“I want you to help me find one person. Then you’re free,” the man said. 

“Get away from my friends!” Thor snapped, flying in with his hammer through the grocery store and breaking everything. Then they heard a noise coming towards all off them. The creatures were coming, and fast. Thor pointed his hammer at the horde and blasted them back. The man was distracted by the horde long enough for Stephen and Tony to dart away from him and run through the store. 

“He still has the gun-” Stephen began.

“Thor’s bullet proof probably,” Tony responded. 

“I’m not worried about Thor I’m worried about us! You don’t have a weapon anymore.” 

“I’ll be alright.”

“Fighting these things with no weapons is a bad idea.” They ran through the store, and Tony grabbed a few cans of soup. “Tony! Tony what are you doing!? We have to go!” 

“We gotta get food for the kids!” Stephen ran up and grabbed him by the waist, opening a portal and pulling them both through. They fell into a back room of the Sanctum that Tony hadn’t seen before. He swore he heard something shuffling around there. Stephen lifted him up and helped him grab the soup, hands shaking as he dropped a few. Tony picked them up, still swearing he heard something. They walked out and went into the hall. 

“Where is my brother?” Loki asked immediately.

“At the store,” Stephen said. 

“Why?!”

“We had to escape there was some guy there and he nearly got us killed!” 

****

“So your friend betrayed you?” Thor asked, slamming his hammer through another of the undead former Midgardian.

“We betrayed each other? I feel betrayed by him, he feels betrayed by me, it’s bad,” said the man- Erik, as Thor had learned he was called. Erik threw a whole rack. “I still want to find him. Make sure he’s alright.”

“I understand. My brother stabbed me many times, but I love him.” 

“These things aren’t hard for me to deal with, but he’s in a wheelchair. I don’t think he can control their minds, but he can most people,” said Erik.

“Ah. Well it’ll be alright. We can find him together! After I tell my brother I’m going to do something, I don’t want him worried about me.” 

“Alright,” said Erik. “We’ll tell your brother then we find Charles.” 

****

Loki talked to his brother, briefly. He was going with some random man he met less than thirty minutes ago to find his friend. 

“That’s a horrible idea.”

“I have to help him,” said Thor. 

“Someone else should go with you,” Loki decided. He knew what he had to do. He wanted control, for as long as he could have it. His brother would be gone, but not forever. But if he could gain control swiftly and definitely then it wouldn’t be a problem. His brother would be safe with that man and himself. He should be anyways. 

“I don’t know who should,” said Thor.

“No one,” argued the man he was with. 

“Look I can go if someone needs to go,” Pepper said. Perfect. 

“No, Pepper-”

“You take care of the kids, Strange keeps the magic here going to protect us, the kids are  _ not  _ going, Rhodey can’t, and Bruce is the only heavy hitter left without Thor here. So I should go. I can handle myself.” The man Thor came back with sighed heavily.

“Why does anyone- Hey! You’re the guy who tried to killed us!” Tony snapped at the guy Thor brought . Of course he did.

“I wasn’t trying to kill you I just wanted to find my friend. At any expense.” He threw Tony a gun. 

“As long as you stay away from me we’re fine,” sighed Tony. 

“I’ll go with you,” Pepper insisted. 

“You just want to because he doesn’t want you to!”

“Maybe,” Pepper said. 

“Lady Pepper can help us with talking to normal people,” said Thor. “And when your friend you betrayed-”

“I didn’t exact-”

“Hates you-”

“He won’t-”

“She can talk to him!” said Thor happily. The man finally relented.  Then they left. Off to do whatever that was. Now, Loki had control. He needed control, thrived on control. He wanted family, wanted love and to be loved, but he always wanted control. It was the one thing in life he never seemed to be allowed. He supposed that was a downside of being a chaos God. It didn’t matter. He could do it. 

****

“We don’t have much food,” noted Rhodey. “So we need to plot this out- how we’re gonna split food and water.”

“It’s been three days, we don’t have to eat for three weeks, but we’ll all lose a lot of necessary energy by not eating,” Strange said. “So once a week is probably a better idea.” 

“I won’t need any for several weeks,” Loki said. 

“Humans need water every three days or so,” noted Stephen.

“Yeah.. So we’ll need to get more water sooner than more food.” They heard something knocking around in the halls. Stephen stood up abruptly.

“I think one of the artifacts got lose,” he said, walking down the hall. 

****

Pepper walked through the city. She wondered where the creatures had gone. Everything seemed incredibly empty. They were headed to a mansion. It was in a remote area of Westchester County,New York. It might take a long time to get there, Pepper didn’t know. She never  really decided to walk across New York before. It had been an hour, she figured. She decided to go into a gas station and get some water. She told Thor of her plan. 

“Great idea! Erik, would you like some water?” 

“We need to keep going,” Erik insisted. 

“Your metal helmet increases the sun’s effect on you,” Thor said. “It’s a bad idea to push yourself in this way.” Erik sighed and landed, walking with them. They went to into the store. Thor and Erik went straight to the water. Pepper, however, heard something. She walked towards it, holding the gun close to her chest. There was a distinct crushing noise. She saw one of the creatures and without hesitation shot it in the head once. It twitched for a moment and went limp.

“What happened!?” Erik exclaimed.

“Are you alright?” Thor yelled, shoving through the store. The two accidentally got the attention of the rest of them. One of the creatures sprung up and snarled, and Pepper shot it as well. She had used two bullets, Tony used one, she thought. She had three left. There were four creatures. Thor slammed one to the wall and Erik used the metal necklace around another’s neck to decapitate it. Pepper kicked the other back and shot it. Thor crushed the one he had as Erik pulled the bullet out of one Pepper had shot and thrust it through the last one’s head. Pepper walked back and bumped into something. She turned around. 

“Clint?” she asked. It was Clint. And he bit her. 

****

Everything was quiet. He sat down and almost slept in the chair, trying to curl himself into a ball. The cloak wrapped around him tightly. Stephen stretched his hands and worked on trying to keep them lose. He sighed. He was tired, he was hungry, and he had a God breathing down his neck. He could feel Loki approach. He had a large magically influence, and Stephen could feel him move close to him. He walked to Stephen’s side and sat down next to him. 

“So.. That lie.”

“I had to- so the others wouldn’t know,” Stephen said. “I didn’t mean to lie to you.. And we both knew you wouldn’t believe it- that you knew what I said was a lie. You knew,” Stephen insisted. He hoped Loki didn’t see it as a lie to him. He hoped Loki would keep his secret. He had no other choice. If they figured out, he knew what they would want him to do. And he couldn’t. That would lead to a fight between him and them. But he knew he would win against them. Which somehow, wasn’t comforting. He wondered, if in order for the God to really understand, if he should pray. Loki paused. 

“How do I know you mean it?” Loki asked. 

“You know a lie! You know what’s going on- you know what this is to me- what this means to me!” 

“Keep your voice down.” 

“Loki- please,” Stephen begged. “This is a matter of life and death.”  Loki looked down at him. He had lost everything- every friend, everything all before. He wouldn’t do it again. He  _ couldn’t.  _ No matter what that meant. Stephen quickly got on his knees and held this hands together. He focused.  _ I am telling you the truth.  _ He insisted in a prayer. There was a pause.

“Alright,” Loki said. “I believe you.” Stephen got back in his chair and didn’t look at Loki until he left. Then he just sat in the chair for a while and closed his eyes tight. He heard someone walking up behind him and jumped. He had a bad experience with that. He scratched at his neck, feeling the scratches there.  It was Tony, who had come up to him. 

“You alright?” asked Tony.

“Yeah,” said Stephen. “You?”

“I can’t sleep,” Tony said, sitting down with him, and enjoying the warm fire. They just sat there for a long, fortunately comfortable moment. “Did you have a fight with Loki or something there?”

“Huh? Oh, kind of. How much of that did you hear?” 

“Just the life or death part.. I felt like that was important,” Tony said. “So is there something you’re going to tell me or do we have to do this the hard way?”  Stephen took a deep breath.

“I can’t tell you,” he said. “It is a matter of life or death- like you heard, and that’s why I can’t.”

“Loki is extorting you then?” Tony asked. Stephen nodded. “Alright… don’t tell him I know.”

“He knows a lie that’s how he’s caught me in this.” 

“Alright… Then don’t tell him unless he asks then be honest… Just please don’t let him use you against us.”

“If it comes down to a real fight I’m against him,” Stephen said. 


	4. Breaking Point

There was an attempt, but he didn’t know if it would help any. Thor hoped that Erik was right, that cutting off the blood flow would stop the infection. So far he seemed right. He had used his metal powers to bend a bar all the way around Pepper’s shoulder, to cut off the blood flow. She complained of the pain a great deal, but it was preferable to death.  Thor hoped so anyways. He really hoped so.It had been three hours, at the least, when she stopped complaining of pain.

“I am so hungry,” she said. 

“I’m getting there too,” Thor said. 

“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “It’s like.. I’ll starve.”

“We can stop,” Thor said. 

“It’s like I’m… Like-”

“We can stop,” confirmed Erik, though Thor knew he didn’t want to. 

“No something is wrong,” she said. “Something’s really wrong.” They both turned to look at her. Her eyes had started to bulge out of her head and blood was dripping down her mouth. Her skin was growing grey. 

“It didn’t work,” Erik said, raising his hand.

“Wait-” was all Thor was able to say before Erik used the piece of metal wrapped around Pepper’s arm to snap her head off. “Why would you-!”

“She was infected! Humans don’t look like that!” Erik snapped back. There was a tense pause. Thor closed his eyes tight and sighed. Erik was right. Thor wished he hadn’t been, but he was. He looked at Erik for a long time, and Erik glared back at him. Erik tried to maintain his glare but Thor never tried to glare back. He wanted Erik to know he understood. Erik looked away for a moment. “We can both fly, let’s just go.”  Thor looked back at Pepper. She was definitely gone. 

“Alright,” said Thor. They both took off, Thor having to slow down to follow Erik. Erik noticed and sped up as fast as he could go. Thor tried to pretend that he wasn’t still having to slow down. 

It was another ten minutes before they finally arrived at the mansion. They walked slowly to the door.

“Something is wrong,” Erik said softly. 

“Wrong?”

“They’d never let me get this close…Not so obviously… Not so easily.” Erik shoved his way in.

“Erik be careful!” Thor snapped, catching his arm as he did. He yanked himself free and started to run through the halls.

“Charles! Charles!” Erik yelled.

“You’ll draw them to us!” snapped Thor. Erik didn’t care. He kept going through and yelling and when confronted by one he killed it quickly with  a coffee maker. 

“Where are you Charles!?” he called.

“Get a hold of yourself!” Erik pulled his helmet off, holding it in his hands tightly. He yelled again. “Charles! Charles please! Tell me where you are!” There was a long pause. “Please.. Charles I can feel you please…”  There was a long pause, and Thor just watched. Then Erik ran across the room and put his hands out, pulling the metal plate in the walls apart. There was a gasp as Erik ran forwards and held the bald man in the wheelchair close to him. 

“Is he..?”

“No,” the man- Thor presumed Charles- said. 

“I’m glad you’ve found your friend and some uh..” Thor began, looking around, “More friends..? But we need to go.” 

****

Everything was fine, until suddenly it wasn’t. That was how most of Tony’s life went, so he wasn’t surprised, just disappointed. Bruce came running out, so furious that part of his neck was green and both his fist.

“Woah, calm down there big guy-” Tony began, really hoping he wasn’t what had pissed him off. Bruce shoved past him and pinned Stephen to the wall by his throat. 

“You son of a bitch!” snapped Bruce. 

“What are you-” Tony began.

“You lying son of a bitch! You put us all in danger!” Bruce snarled. Stephen tried desperately to either say something or breath. He gasped and opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. 

“He can’t breath-” Tony said.

“He put us in danger! I don’t care! He deserves to die!” Bruce was getting even more angry, crushing Stephen even more, and Tony heard a crunch. 

“Get off him!” snapped Loki, yanking Bruce’s arm back. Bruce got even more furious. 

“What did he even do!? What did he do?!” yelled Tony.

“He lied,” Loki said flippantly. “People do that.”

“Loki shut up,” Tony hissed. “Bruce, what did he do? What did he do?” Bruce was so furious he nearly crushed Stephen then. 

“Let him say it himself if you can’t,” Loki told him. Bruce released Stephen’s neck enough for him to breath and he gasped desperately for about a minute.

“Did you close the door?” Stephen asked.

“What do you mean?!”Bruce was getting pissed again.

“Stop! Bruce!” Tony snapped. 

“The door! Did you close the door? It’s our only chance- you know what I d-” Stephen gasped before being choked more. 

“Wong never left!” Loki snapped. “He was infected and Stephen kept him here in hopes of finding a cure!” 

“Fucking what?” Rhodey snapped. “You did what?!”

“Look you big green brute-” Loki began. “He wanted to save his closest friend and find a cure for the end of your miserable species and now you’re crushing him to death?”

“What door?” Rhodey interjected. Bruce started to calm momentarily, and released Stephen.

“Door?” asked Tony.

“The door Strange used what could have been his last breath to tell us to shut!” Rhodey yelled.

“What was with that door?”

“When people are infected they can still use their powers,” Stephen coughed. “I enchanted the room so he couldn’t get out but he could be anywhere.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Portals.” 

“Oh shit,” Rhodey said. “Did you shut the-”

“No I didn’t, but maybe some _ one  _ shouldn’t have-” There was a sudden loud scream. They all turned and Bruce released Stephen. They all ran towards the scream. Peter ran away, and then ran behind Tony. 

“Peter? What happened?”

“Wong’s back,” Peter said, nearly crying “And he just appeared and there was a portal and I thought it was Mr. Dr. Strange and it wasn’t and he bit Ned and he just vanished and Ned is hurt but he’s not a zombie yet I don’t think-”

“Peter, breath,” Tony said, holding his shoulders. 

“If I could have told you I would have.” 

“I’m not dealing with this for you,” Loki said, vanishing himself. 

“This is bad.” Stephen ran down the hall.

“What the hell are you doing, Strange!?” snapped Bruce. 

“Getting one of Wong’s shoes so I can cast a tracking spell so we can find him.” 

“Wait, we need to agree on what we’re going to do once we find him,” said Tony. Stephen turned to them and dropped the shoe. 

“I can’t kill him,” Stephen said. “He’s my only friend.” There was a pause. 

“We could trap him again,” Tony offered.

“No. We should just kill him. We’ve killed others.” 

“We need a test subject for a cure,” Tony said. There was a deathly silence. “Bruce we need Strange to find him or we won’t catch him.” Bruce glared from Stephen to Tony. 

“Fine. But Strange is catching him. And if you both get bitten I’ll kill you both.” 

“Fine,” Stephen said. He began to cast the tracking spell when they heard a noise behind them and Wong sprung forwards, grabbing Stephen by the neck. The cloak whipped off and wrapped around his head, slamming him into the wall. “Cloak! Drag him back to the room.” The cloak listened and Tony and Stephen ran after it. Bruce stayed behind with Peter. The cloak flung Wong into the room and Stephen shut the door. 

“Stephen.. Your neck,” said Tony, touching the wound softly. 

“Oh fuck.. Oh fuck.. What is it?” Stephen said, starting to pant as the cloak tried to put itself back on his shoulders.

“What is? You got scratched.”

“Oh thank the fucking Vishanti, I thought he bit me.”

“Can scratches infect..?” asked Tony.

“No,” said Stephen, showing him older scratches. “Or it takes a really long time.. Regardless, the first symptoms are obvious. A deep hunger, the skin gets greyer, and they start to bleed from the nose and eyes. If I start showing those just kill-” They heard another scream and Peter ran back to them followed by Bruce. 

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” Bruce said, holding a wound on his arm.  It was a bite.

“Ned attacked Rhodey and Bruce and-” Peter started.

“Peter were you bitten?” asked Tony.

“No?” 

“I can trap them all in the Sanctum, then we can get out with a portal,” Stephen said to Tony. 

“Holy shit,” Bruce said. Tony physically saw the color drain from his face. “I am so hungry.”  Then his skin went from grey to green as he completely Hulked out. They ran as Stephen opened a portal. Tony and Peter ran through it and as Stephen tried to follow them Hulk grabbed his leg. 

“Hulk HUNGRY!” snarled Hulk. Stephen clung to the ground desperately as the Cloak tried to pull him through. 

“Stephen!” screamed Tony grabbing his arms. In a last ditch effort Stephen closed the portal and cut off his own leg. Stephen screamed and clutched at the nub. 

“Where are we?” Peter asked. “Where are we?” 

****

“We have to go,” Charles said. 

“It’s too dangerous, Charles,” said Erik. “We don’t have to go, I can protect us.”

“Erik-” Erik reached down to the pipes under the mansion and pulled them up, bringing the whole mansion into the air. He heard the mutants in the building- and also Thor- scream. 

“It’s safe up here- we can just live up here,” he said, turning Charles around so he had to face him. 

“Erik, it is the job of the X-Men to protect the world-”

“ _ I  _ can go and  get survivors and bring them here,” Erik offered. Charles just looked up to im the way he always did. With disappointment. That hurt. 

“We have to-”

“Mutants and humans!” he offered desperately. 

“Those are pretty words, Erik,” said Charles. “But I doubt it seriously.” Erik moved a hand to his helmet, but paused. He had to stand by his choices. And if he removed the helmet there was a chance that Charles would make him change his mind. Should he just say it? He paused. His hand fell back to his side.

“I won’t fall for it, Charles,” he hissed. 

“Fall for what?” Charles asked.

“You want me to prove to you I mean it by taking off my helmet and letting you in my mind so that you can forcibly change my mind.” Charles looked hurt by the suggestion of it. 

“Erik you don’t understand.. You just think that everyone is your enemy-”

“Because you are!” he snapped. There was a pause. Charles turned away. “Charles! Talk to me!” Charles whipped back around. 

“You don’t get it Erik! I wish I didn’t have to fight you but you make this difficult-”

“I can’t let you go out there and get killed because it would be my fault!” Erik yelled. They pause.

“Your fault?” Erik put his hands on the sides of Charles’ wheelchair. 

“My. Fault,” he insisted. 

“Erik.. I would not use my powers to change your mind.” 

“How am I supposed to trust that?” he asked. “How am I supposed to know that?” 

“Erik, I loved you,” Charles said, grabbing his arms.

“I understand-”

“Not like a brother- not like a friend, Erik-”

“I really understand-”

“Erik, I still love you,” Charles said. “After all this time I still love you.. And I.. I hurt inside to think that you… You think I would use my powers to just yank you around and use you…” 

“I… I fear it,” Erik said. “I fear you doing that..” 

“Oh, so much better, you  _ fear  _ me.”

“I fear something like that happening- I fear you not caring enough about me to do that. I didn’t… I don’t know if I thought you would or just feared it deeply.. But I know I fear it deeply. I.. I want to trust you I want..” Erik paused. He knew he had loved Charles once. Did he still? “Charles…” 

“I know you don’t love me, I know it was stupid-” Erik took off his helmet and dropped it. 


	5. Assemble

Tony had to take care of it. He had no idea where he was though, and realized that he couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying. He walked back to Stephen and Peter. Stephen was breathing in and out, trying to calm himself.

“Where the hell are we?” Tony asked him.

“I had to focus on somewhere so I went the only place I instantly thought of as safe- Kamar-Taj. Well, near it.. The forest I guess, it was hard to focus. Oh shit. Oh. Oh shit, shit. Oh fuck,” hissed Stephen, holding onto his leg as he burned the wound closed with magic. Stephen laid back and breathed in and out frantically. Peter was breaking down.

“Can we get into Kamar-Taj?” Stephen nodded. “Can you speak these languages?”

“Yep.” 

“Alright we’re going to Kamar-Taj.. Is your other leg alright?” 

“Yep.” Tony helped Stephen up, pulling him up onto his one leg. Stephen held tight to Tony. 

“Peter you have to get up,” said Tony. Peter took a deep breath and tried to stand up, nearly crying. “It’s okay Peter. It’s okay to cry. We’re going to be safe soon and then you can just lay down for hours.” Peter got up and decided to help Tony help Stephen. They left him hop forwards, and they followed, keeping him up. They walked to the doors of Kamar-Taj and Stephen knocked. The door opened itself. They walked in, the Cloak of Levitation being the only thing holding him up. They walked their way into the building and Stephen showed them the rooms there and then crawled into his old bed and curled up there. Peter curled up in another bed. Tony took a deep breath. Peter or Stephen? Peter needed him mentally. So did Stephen. But Stephen was also deeply physically injured. He would take care of Peter first, as the boy would likely fall asleep. Then he could deal with Stephen. He went to Peter’s side. Peter was almost in tears.

“Are you alright, Peter?” asked Tony. 

“I’m fine,” he whimpered, voice cracking. 

“Peter,” Tony said. “It’s alright not to be fine.”  Peter broke into tears and held tightly to Tony. 

“My best friend is dead!” cried Peter. “He’s dead and my Aunt is dead and my parents are dead and I’m alone!” he cried. Tony rubbed his back.

“That is awful, but you’re not alone Peter. I’m here for you. I’m here for you. And if Stephen can figure out the spell then we can get Ned back and Uncle Bruce back and Uncle Rhodey and everyone can be alright again,” Tony said. “It won’t be the same, but it’ll be good. And no matter what, I’m here for you. I’m always here,” he promised. Peter clung to him and cried for a while longer until he couldn’t cry anymore. Peter finally relaxed and fell asleep. He laid Peter down and pulled the blanket over his head.

“Thanks dad,” Peter muttered, half asleep. Tony smiled he walked over to Stephen. 

“Are you alright?” Tony asked him. He sat there and continued to try to control his breathing, control himself as he shook. Tony sat by Stephen and wrapped an arm around him. He rubbed his back. “I understand.” 

“What?” asked Stephen, voice shaking. 

“I understand why you kept him there,” Tony said. 

“I was an idiot,” Stephen said. “I should have… I should have…” 

“You couldn’t kill your best friend,” Tony said. “You’re not stupid just.. Human. I would have done the same thing.”  Stephen slouched over onto Tony’s side. 

“It’s my fault. I didn’t even put a sigh or a warning or-”

“You didn’t mean for this to happen.. Besides so long as they’re trapped and they’re.. Uninjured? I don’t know how to say it but we can fix them. We can fix this,” Tony said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Stephen laid over on the bed. 

“I think I’m gonna pass out,” he said.

“Are you alright? Like physically?”

“I just lost a leg and a lot of blood,” Stephen said. “I think I’ll.. I think I’ll be..” He fell back suddenly, and Tony caught him before he hit the mattress, which wouldn’t hurt as much as the floor. Tony gently laid him back. Tony felt for a pulse, terrified for a moment that he had just died and left Peter and Tony in wherever Kamar-Taj was. Stephen’s heart was still beating, but suddenly and frantically. That couldn’t be good. Tony didn’t know a lot about medicine but he knew the heart was supposed to slow down when resting. He was sweating too. Something was wrong. 

People could only lose so much blood. Tony figured that was it. It was blood loss. Maybe some kind of shock? He needed that damn wizard to live. He could fix the whole thing, probably. In the least he had a better chance of it than anyone else. He didn’t know what to do. He had no access to technology to look it up, he didn’t even know his own blood type much less Stephen’s. He really hoped that he hadn’t lost too much blood. Tony started to wander around Kamar-Taj and hoping that something there could help. He found books. Damnit. He started to dig through the books, looking around for something that could magically make blood. Or magically make a leg? Was that a thing? Could he make Stephen another leg? He didn’t know. He searched around for anything he could find that could be useful. This was going to be a ridiculous amount of reading. 

“What are you doing?” asked Stephen. Tony turned and screamed. 

“You’re a ghost! Oh shit, you’re dead, okay,” said Tony. “Oh fuck-”

“I’m not dead, it’s an astral projection,” Stephen said. 

“Oh.. So can you.. Can you ghost help me find a way to fix your body?” 

“I’m not a gho- Nevermind, yes.” 

****

Thor needed to get back to the house and to his friends. And he needed to do it quickly. He sat there and waited, as patiently as he could. 

“So… What do you think they’re talking about?” he asked. The other man glared at him.

“Look, bub, those too hate each other.”

“My name is Thor, not bub,” Thor corrected. The man looked at him like he was stupid. 

“Call me Wolverine,” he said.

“Who names their child Wolverine?”

“It’s not my actual name-”

“Then why did you tell me?”

“It’s a nickname,” he sighed. “You know what let’s go see what Magneto and Professor X are bitchin’ about.”

“Who and-”

“Erik and Charles,” Wolverine snapped. They walked into the room and saw Erik sitting in Charles’ lap as they kissed. They walked back out of the room. “What the fuck.”

“They are in love,” Thor said.

“They hate each other!”

“Well clearly not. And you looked at me like I’m stupid,” said Thor. 

“They have been fighting for years… We’ve been fighting Magneto for years and they’ve tried to kill each other and now they’re makin’ out…” Wolverine said, somewhat in shock. “What.. what the hell.” 

“My brother often fights the ones he loves,” said Thor. “I know little about those two but they seem pretty happy now.. Speaking of my brother I must go. It seems those two will be preoccupied for quite some time. I’m going in alone.”

“I’ll go with you, there is no chance I’m gonna be here if they bang.” 

“Can we go-” asked a small blue man. 

“No, Kurt, we’ve lost enough people as is. You just have to deal with it.”

“Why do you get to go?”

“My healing factor might protect me from the infection.”

“Might.”

“It’s better than a definite no.” 

“Come, badger man! Let’s go!”

“Badger man?”

“Wolverines are quite like badgers.” 

“I… Whatever.” Thor opened the door.

“We are… up.”

“Up?” Wolverine looked out the window. The building was hundreds of feet off the ground. “God damnit! Hey! Charles! Tell your boyfriend to put the building back on the ground!” he yelled. There was a pause. The building did not return to the ground. 

“It’s safer up here!” Erik yelled back. Wolverine sighed.

“I think I prefer it when he was trying to kill us,” he said. 

“Hold on, badger man,” said Thor, grabbing him by the waist. 

“What are you doing-” And Thor swung his hammer and they were off. They landed next to the Sanctum. “Don’t ever do that again.” They walked to the door.

“Brother! I’ve returned-” And then a massive green hand reached for them. Wolverine slashed at it with his claws. “Hulk! Friend! Calm do-” Hulk made an awful gurgling noise. A thick red slime that at some point had likely been blood gushed from his mouth. 

“He’s infected!”

“No.. No! Oh no!” Thor yelled. His brother! He had to find his brother. He slammed Hulk back with his hammer, crushing him into the wall. Thor ran in. “Brother!” he yelled. Another one came up to him- the friend of the spider child- and he splattered him across the wall. One crawled up to him and he kicked it across the room- he couldn’t even see them anymore- couldn’t even tell who had been who. Hulk came back at him and he slammed his hammer into his  face- once, twice, three, four, five, six times. Maybe more. “Brother!” He found a leg, stripped to the bone. He picked it up. Who’s leg was it? He snapped the bone. It broke too easily. Loki was somewhere. Not here. Who’s leg was it? Who else was dead? Hulk had gotten back up-  _ why  _ did he have to get back up!? Thor turned to him again and threw the bone. “Just stay down you stupid fucking creature!”  Hulk screeched and turned for Wolverine. Thor had to find his brother. He turned and walked through the building. “Brother!” He noticed something. A glass snake. It hadn’t been there before. Loki loved snakes. Thor loved snakes. Loki liked to turn into a snake to bother him. Loki had done it. 

“Help! Help me!” Wolverine yelled. “He’s not stopping! Help!” Thor ignored it and reached for the snake. “I need your help!” Thor turned from the snake and threw his hammer, pinning Hulk to the wall. He grabbed the snake and looked at it closely. “Now you step in! What the hell is that?” 

“It’s from my brother I bet.” 

“You almost let me die for a fucking toy snake?!” snapped Wolverine.

“Look, Wolverine, I don’t know you and I believed my brother was dead. This ‘toy snake’ is the only proof otherwise! I’ve lost my mother and my father and my home and I am not losing him too! I won’t!”

“Don’t expect me to have your back!” 

“I saved you in the end,” said Thor. 

“No wonder you and Magneto got along so well- You’re both fuckin’ crazy!” 

“I can still let him eat you,” Thor reminded him, trying to joke. 

“Are you threatening me?” 

“No- It was intended to be a joke.” There was a tense pause. 

“What now?”

“I’m going to find my brother. If you’d like I can take you back to the house. Maybe this ‘Magneto’ will even go with me since we’re both insane and-”

“I’ll go with you.” 

“Why do you want to?” 

“I want to do something! I wanna be able to do something! Protect the others! I have been stuck in that mansion for what, a week now? I need to feel like I’m getting something done.” 

“Alright.. Then let’s go.”  

“Where?” asked Wolverine. Thor looked at the snake. He turned it over in his hands, again and again. 

“Where are you brother?” asked Thor. The snake began to glow. “Looks like he might find us.” 

“So what-”

“Doc! Doc, you here?” they heard someone yell. 

“Who is-”

“By Odin’s beard! Sam!” 

“Thor?” Sam ran to them. He  saw Hulk on the wall. “Oh shit..” 

“Hello Sam.”

“Who is dead and who is alive?” Sam asked. 

“I know.. I know Rhodey has been infected, Peter’s Aunt, Bruce, Pepper, Clint, Peter’s friend, and I have found the leg of one more.” 

“A leg?” asked Natasha. 

“We knew about Clint, Cap’s gone, Happy, Fury, Hill, and Okoye,” Sam said.

“Who is we?” asked Wolverine. 

“Us, T’Challa, Shuri, this guy named Ross- he came with the Wakandans-  and Vision. We don’t know where anyone else is.” 

“Tony, Strange, and Peter are missing, but I’ve seen them all alive. I believe that one of them is dead, judging by the leg. My brother is also alive.” 

“The leg?”

“I’ve found the bone of a leg.” 

“That’s not proof someone is dead. If they find live flesh they’ll eat it all,” Natasha presented a nub. “I lost a hand. Got bit when this first started. Had to cut it off. Amputation can save people, scratches don’t infect, and destroying the brain kills the infected. Nothing else will.” She turned to the Hulk. 

“Wait! The wizard said he was going to find a cure to it,” said Thor. He looked around the room. “We don’t need anymore dead than already are.” 

“The wizard? Dr. Strange?” asked Sam.

“Yes. He was here.. His friend wasn’t he said he went back to- Oh! That’s where they’ve gone I bet!” exclaimed Thor.

“Who?”

“Where?” 

“Tony, Strange, and Peter. They’ve gone to Kamar-Taj I bet. They must have needed some magic thing to cure it.” 

“Addressing it now- Who the hell is that guy?” asked Sam. 

“Wolverine,” he introduced himself. “And I’ve got some more people with me.” 

****

“So this is how the world ends,” said Wanda. 

“Possibly,” Loki said. “I don’t care all that much.” 

“We have to keep going,” Bucky insisted. “We have to find them and we have to-” He continued his rant but Loki stopped listening. He knew, and Wanda knew, that Steve was dead. Bucky did not. They agreed very early on not to tell him. They had to find their way back to the others, back to someone. He hoped Thor wasn’t too stupid to figure out the snake. Then he felt it. He had. He was almost proud of his brother, if he didn’t of course obviously know that  _ his  _ brother was smart enough to figure it out. Their mother had done good. 

“I’ve found Thor,” he said. 

“Alright,” said Wanda. “Let’s go to them.”  Bucky and Wanda got close to Loki and he teleported them to the others. There was a gasp and they were almost attacked. 

“Brother!” Thor exclaimed.

“You found my snake.”

“What happened in there?” Natasha asked him. His first instinct was to lie- but there wasn’t any point to it. He explained what had happened there, excluding the part where he had blackmailed Strange and likely made it worse. 

“Does anyone know where Steve is?” Bucky asked immediately. There was a tense pause.

“He’s gone Bucky,” said Natasha at last. There was a long pause. 

“Maybe not,” Thor said. “Dr. Strange said that he can find a cure for this- a magic cure. So we just have to go to.. Well maybe he didn’t go there.”

“It would still be a logical place to go,” said Loki. 

“So we go to Kamar-Taj,” said Thor. “And we fix all this and everyone is alright!” 

“Yeah,” said Sam. 

“We gotta go to the mansion first,” said Wolverine, “ Get the others.” 

“Alright, let’s head that way,” said Natasha. 

“Oh, by the way she’s the apocalypse leader, obey or die,” Sam told Bucky. 

“Literally?”

“Yeah it’s Mad Max and BDSM clothes time,” Sam said. 

“BDSM clothes?”

“Don’t worry, you’ve got the straps and the tight fabric, you’re good,” Sam said. 

“What’s BDSM?” 

****

The Wakandan’s ship still seemed to work, and they had been using it to gather survivors and carry them away from the infection zone. Thor glanced back and forth between out the window and back at his brother just to make sure he was really there. 

“So the mansion is in the sky?”

“It is right now,” said Wolverine. “This guy lifted it up. It should be around here somewhere.” 

“Lifted it up?”

“He has magnetic powers and can lift things and manipulate metal with them. So he put it in the air.” They looked back and forth.

“The building’s not here,” said Thor. “But it should be…”

“Yeah this is where it is…” The others started to look back and forth.

“Is that it?” asked Sam. Wolverine ran to the side he was on. Sam pointed down. Thor walked over to them.

“Yeah,” Wolverine said, looking at the mansion that had been smashed into the ground, “That’s it.” 


	6. Kamar-Taj Cure

Tony followed the ghost back to the room and looked down at Stephen’s body. He was pale, and covered in a sheen of sweat. He looked dead, if not for the way he was shaking. That was probably more disturbing, considering what he had just seen. What if the scratches were infecting him and they had just taken longer? He didn’t know. 

“It won’t heal the infection,” noted Stephen. “So if it is that, I’ll know and I can stay out of my body so you can kill-”

“Or restrain.”

“Me,” finished Stephen. Tony held the spell book tight. 

“I can’t do magic,” said Tony.

“Anyone can, for a start,” said Stephen. “But I’ll help you with this.” Stephen told him which page to open it to. “It will allow my body to regenerate blood, though a leg’s not going to grow back.” 

“Okay,” Tony said, putting the book on the floor. Stephen’s ghost hands floated over Tony’s. He could see his own hands through Stephen’s. He saw the lines, the scars in them. It was odd. Everything was odd anymore, but at least this was in a comforting way. 

“Are you ready?” asked Stephen.

“Yeah,” Tony said. Stephen’s astral hands went into Tony’s own and Tony felt the magic flow through them, like caffeine rushing through his veins. His hands felt almost possessed as Stephen started to move them, but Tony moved with them. They pressed his hands to Stephen’s chest. They could feel his heart thumping in his chest under Tony’s hands. He started to speak the words from the spell book, and Tony thought he should join in until he saw the words and realized he would probably pronounce them all wrong. He could feel the magic flowing through his hands as they started to heal Stephen together. He watched in awe as the magic physically moved from him to Stephen. Stephen pulled his hands out of Tony’s. There was a pause. He looked at the ghost Stephen and smiled like an idiot, not even an inch from the wizard’s face. He and Pepper had broken up again and again and it had happened again right before the whole apocalypse thing. She had told him to move on and that they were better as friends. He supposed it counted as moving on, right? He leaned forwards and tried to kiss Stephen and went right through the astral projection. He closed his eyes tight and tried not to die of embarrassment. 

“What did..?”

“Nothing,” Tony said. “I’m gonna…” He stood up gradually. Stephen’s ghost went back into his body. “You feeling better?”  Stephen attempted to stand up for a second and Tony pushed him back down. “You have to stay down you only have one leg-” 

“I had to get you back over here somehow,” he said. “Let’s try that again.” Stephen caught Tony’s shoulder with a trembling hand and pulled him closer. Tony leaned in and kissed him, not going through his head this time. He held Stephen close, kissing him and clinging to him as if he was the only thing left in the world. With the apocalypse looming around the corner he might as well be. They held each other tightly. 

  
  


Damn near everything and everyone in the mansion was dead. Or at least everyone who was still in the mansion. Some who had been were missing. That was lucky. Wolverine was not doing good and Thor felt bad for him.

“We can find your friends,” he promised.

“We need to go,” said Natasha. “We’ve all lost friends too-” 

“Some of them are still alive!” he said. 

“Likely not,” said T’Challa, pointing to one on the ground. “This one was infected. That is probably what happened to them.” 

“I can fly us both to Kamar-Taj once we find his friends,” said Thor. “We can stay behind and look for them.” 

“Brother I just got  you back-”

“If you stayed with us and helped us you could teleport us right there instead.”

“Fine,” Loki sighed. “I’ll help you.” 

“We’re headed to Kamar-Taj,” said Natasha. 

“We’ll see you there,” said Thor. They left the three of them behind.

“If we die, I’m going to strangle you both before we die,” Loki said. 

“I love you too brother,” Thor said to him. 

“I’ll go this way, you two go that way.” 

“Sounds good.” Thor and Loki went to the right as Wolverine went to the left. They walked through the forested area around the destroyed mansion. There were broken bits of building everywhere, as long as bits of people. It was bad. “Why would he drop it?” asked Thor outloud.

“Well… One person was infected, so I would guess that there was an infected person in the building who attacked the others,” said Loki. Thor and Loki split up a little bit, searching around further. He heard something. He walked further into the forest, and heard someone. He walked forwards, nearly calling his hammer, before remembering it was likely the only thing keeping Hulk back. He dropped his hand and moved slower, deciding to sneak instead. He listened carefully. 

“This is all my fault,” he said softly. He recognized the voice. It was Erik. He floated in a sitting position, knee to knee with Charles. The helmet that Erik had  worn was over Charles’ head, morphed to fit around it all. Charles’ skin was pale and grey. He was bitten for sure. Thor paused. “If I could.. If I could take it all back I would..” He gently rubbed the side of the chair, fondly.

“Erik,” Thor said softly, and he jumped.

“I will kill you before I hurt him,” Erik informed him. 

“I understand, I just wanted you to know to stay here because we’re going to get a cure now and I want to be able to help you when I get back, okay?” 

“Thank you,” he said.  Thor walked away, meeting back up with Loki and explaining it to him. 

“So we’re not telling Logan?”

“Who is Logan?”

“Wolverine, I’ve heard about him before.”

“From who? Do you all just know each other?”

“No, not all enemies of the Avengers and whatever Logan is know each other.” 

“Alright,” Thor said. “We need to go and get him and then get to Kamar-Taj.”  They walked back towards the mansion.

“I found one!” called Logan. 

“We didn’t find anything,” Loki lied. Loki was the better liar, so Thor would leave that to him.  

“His name is Kurt,” he said, presenting the smiling blue man.

“Hello Kurt.”

“I’m kind of blue,” Kurt said, “And I have less fingers than normal and-”

“We do have eyes,” said Loki.

“I just wanted to be sure you knew that I’m a mutant and not any sort of demon or-” Kurt said softly, almost hiding behind Logan. 

“Worry not, I would have thought maybe you were a frost giant or something. And I love frost giants- my brother is one,” said Thor, trying to sooth him. 

“You’re a frost giant?” Logan asked Loki.

“A small one but yes, I can be blue.” 

“You’re blue too?” Kurt asked. Loki sighed.

“Yes, are you deaf?” 

“Loki, be nice,” Thor said. Loki sighed and transformed, revealing his normal form. 

“There? Is that nice?” Loki hissed. Kurt moved out from behind Logan gradually, looking at Loki.

“Wow,” he said softly. 

 


	7. Grouping Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this weird inability to let things go well for too long so here you go!

Tony made food for the three of them, Stephen staying in his ghost form for most of the time, telling him and Peter that he was not in fact a ghost again and again. He was an astral projection, Tony understood that. But it was really fun to tease him instead of calling him what he was and saying ghost as much as possible. 

“Come here Dr. Ghost,” Tony called. “You need to get back to your body so you can eat some stew.” He relented to calling him Dr. Ghost instead of Mr. Ghost because he didn’t want to make him too angry at him. Just bother him a little. He was hoping what had happened the other night wouldn’t be a singular occurrence. They hadn’t really done anything, but it felt nice to wake up with another living being by his side. Just Stephen’s heartbeat made him feel better. Also it was infinitely unfair that Stephen could pepper him in ghost kisses without Tony being able to get him back. It was a problem. 

“I have to read just a few-”

“I can bring your book to the table,” said Tony.

“Alright,” sighed Stephen. He went back to his body, and the cloak lifted him and floated him to the table.

“Hi Mr. Dr. Strange,” said Peter.

“Hello Peter,” he responded. Stephen still looked awful, but he didn’t look dead. Or undead. Just really beat up. He was being supported completely by the cloak. He settled into the chair, as the three of them ate their stew. It was the worst thing Tony had ever cooked in his life but no one complained. 

“I really miss everybody,” said Peter softly.

“We’ll find a cure, Peter,” Stephen said. “I promise.” Peter nodded. 

“We can’t bring back my Aunt… can we?” he asked, dropping his spoon. Tony and Stephen looked to each other. Tony had to do it. Stephen couldn’t- he couldn’t understand it properly. He hadn’t done  _ it.  _

“No,” Tony said, wrapping an arm around Peter. “We can’t.” Peter began to sob, tears dripping into his food as he curled in on himself. “I’m here for you,” Tony promised. “I’ll always be here for you.” Stephen and the cloak came over to them, the cloak wrapping around Peter’s shoulders and Stephen putting his arms around Peter too.

“We’re here for you too,” Stephen said softly.

“Thank you,” said Peter, tears still streaming down his face. “Bo- A-all of you,” Peter sobbed. The cloak gently wiped the tears off of Peter’s face. They all sat there for a long time, comforting each other. Tony tried to control his breathing but seeing Peter break down broke him too and he just started to cry uncontrollably. He shouldn’t- he had to protect Peter. He had to be strong. But he couldn’t. The cloak flew off and drug a chair up behind the two of them, moving Stephen to it so he could hold onto both of them. He wrapped his arms around the two of them, a shaking hand on each of their shoulders. 

“We can fix this,” said Stephen. “We can still fix this. I just have to find the right book and fix them or something-” Tony felt an unusual warmth on his back, and realized Stephen’s thumbs rubbed his back in the same places as the warmth. 

“What are-” Tony said. Peter fell asleep on the counter. “Stephen what-”

“It’s a rune, a simple spell made to sooth you. He’s just emotionally exhausted, it shouldn’t put you to sleep,” Stephen said. Tony was getting tired too.

“I think it might.”

“That’s alright. You’ve taken such good care of us, you deserve a break,” Stephen said. He kissed Tony’s forehead. 

“That’s not fair get back here,” Tony said, nearly falling asleep as Stephen sat back up. He caught Stephen and pulled him close and kissed him back. Tony then fell forwards and laid on Stephen’s lap.  “I think I’m gonna…” Then they heard a noise. Stephen used a portal to send Peter back to his room and stood up gradually, the cloak lifting him as he stood awkwardly on his foot.

“You heard that right?”

“Yeah,” Tony said. He stood up, leaning slightly on Stephen. “Stay.. Stay back demons,” Tony said, yawning. Stephen held him close and in his other hand he made a magic shield and put it between them and whatever was coming.

“Hello friends!” exclaimed Thor. “We are here!” 

“Thor?” asked Tony.

“Yes! Where are the others?”

“It’s just us and Peter,” said Stephen. 

“Then the others haven’t gotten here yet,” noted Loki, who was for some reason blue. Tony didn’t care, it was Loki he just did things like that sometimes. 

“Hi, I’m Kurt,” said a small voice. A smaller, darker blue man- maybe a boy? - peaked out from behind Loki. 

“Logan,” said Wolverine.

“Holy shit, it’s Wolverine,” Tony said. 

“This is Dr. Strange and Tony,” Thor said for them. “Doctor, where is your leg?”

“I had to cut it off to keep Hulk from eating me,” he said.

“ _ That’s  _ who’s leg that was,” Thor said. 

“You found it?”

“It was only bone at that point,” said Loki. Peter shuffled in.

“Mr. Thor! Mr. Loki!” he exclaimed. He gasped. “Mr. Wolverine!” Logan sighed. 

“So why did you come here?” asked Stephen. 

 

By the time everything was explained, Peter had fallen asleep again. Stephen had gone to search for more books, this time with the help of Loki, which left Stephen’s body in the other room. The cloak kept sweeping back and forth between checking on Peter and checking on Stephen’s body. Tony was talking to Thor and Logan, as Kurt had followed Loki. 

“So the others will be here soon, have you found anything on the cure yet?” asked Thor.

“No,” said Tony.

“We haven’t eaten in like two days can we have some of that?” Logan asked, more interested in the stew than the Wakanda crew not being there yet. 

“Knock yourself out, it sucks though,” said Tony. 

“We ate yesterday,” Thor laughed. 

“It feels longer, okay? We’ve been running around and stuff. ‘Sides you’re a God, you don’t feel it,” said Logan, taking the stew. Logan started to eat it. “You were right this sucks.” 

“I told you,” said Tony, shrugging. “I tried though.” 

“So we have Sam, Natasha, T’Challa, Shuri, Bucky, Vision, Wanda, and a guy named uh…”

“Ross,” Logan said.

“Ross,” Thor confirmed. 

“It’s just the three of us here,” Tony said. “But it wasn’t always.”

“We lost a lot of people too,” said Logan. He was getting a second bowl of the stew.

“Looks like it didn’t suck that much, did it?” asked Tony. Logan grunted.

“It’s not bad.”  Thor took a bowl too.

“I don’t know what you two were complaining about, this is good. You made it, Tony?”

“You don’t have to be nice.”

“I have eaten livers raw, Tony, this is fine,” he said. 

“Don’t eat it all we’ve still got the others,” said Tony. He had made that for Stephen and Peter and him. Well, the others needed to eat too he supposed. Suddenly he heard a loud slamming as people ran towards them. 

“I found something!” Stephen yelled, flying straight through the walls.Loki was furious. 

“You!” Loki snarled. He grabbed Logan by the wrist.

“Me?”

“The kid told me,” Loki said, forcibly rolling up his sleeve. “Since you seemed so keen on not telling us!” 

“What’s-” Thor began. Tony and the others looked too. It was a toothmark, huge and unusual, but unmistakable. 

“That’s what Hulk’s bites look like,” noted Stephen. “He bit my leg-”

“It’s been there for like a day,” said Logan. “My healing factor kept me from getting infected it’s fine-”

“Or it slows it down,” Loki said. 

“It doesn’t matter- you found a cure,” Logan said to Stephen.

“Yes- well sort of? It’s a spell that may be able to cure it, but I have to get back in my body really quickly-” Stephen flew off. 

“I think we deserved to know!”

“Why did you tell him?” Logan asked Kurt, who was still hanging behind Loki. 

“I didn’t know what it was I just saw it-” 

“I have a problem,”  Stephen interrupted, still in his astral form.

“What’s the problem?” demanded Logan. 

“I can’t get back in my body- I think.. I think I might have died?” Stephen said. 

“You think?” asked Logan. “What the hell do you mean you think?”

“I think that my body died but I can’t feel for a pulse so I don’t know-” Tony ran into the room, pushing the door open and feeling Stephen’s throat for a pulse. There was nothing.

“Oh shit,” Tony said. “It happened- your body died.. How are you still? How can this happen?” 

“I don’t know,” said Stephen. “But I can’t physically do anything unless I have a body- I need my body back to cast that spell.” 

“We have a more pressing matter,” Thor interrupted. 

“What the hell is more pressing than Stephen’s body dying?” Tony snapped.

“Logan is showing more symptoms,” said Thor. 

“Oh.. Oh no.” 

 


	8. Body and Mind

He held Charles’ hands, and just stayed there with him. There had been a brief moment, when he had abandoned the helmet, abandoned it all on whim, just hoping desperately to feel the love that Charles claimed was there. It  _ was.  _ He really did love him. And nothing else mattered in that moment. But then of course, the fool had been so stubborn about saving humanity he had the other psychic there- Jean- make an attempt to hook up to the infecteds’ brains, to truly understand the illness. She had been infected, and then started to go around the mansion biting everyone else. Charles had tried to check on her, and been infected himself. In his grief, Erik couldn’t hold up the building. He could barely concentrate enough to mold his old helmet into essentially a muzzle around Charles’ head. Even then it was a barrier between them. Always it was. 

He had decided then that if Logan came to him in hopes of killing Charles- not really because he wanted to, Erik wouldn’t believe that anyone with any ounce of good in their body could  _ want  _ to- then he would rip every ounce of adamantium from his body before he even got close. If he- or anyone else- somehow managed it he had a plan B. Flip the magnetic poles  of the planet and watch them all die. It would likely kill him too, maybe just doing it would, but he didn’t care. If Charles was dead then everyone else would be too. 

No, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t because his daughter, Wanda, was still out there somewhere. Most likely. If they both died though, he would do it. He would do it again and again until it killed everyone or himself, whichever came first. He refused to live in a world without them. He would tell Logan- or whoever inevitably arrived without a cure and with a weapon that he would. You’d have to be crazy to do something like that. Fortunately, Erik was. Or at least they all believed he was. He didn’t see himself as insane, just passionate. Passionate about the survival of mutants and the death of the inferior. Passionate about his family. About Charles. And now he was going to protect him. They would find a cure, by God, or they would die themselves. He’d see to it. 

Charles moved. In a strange, disturbing, not at all Charles way. He writhed and wriggled and tried to pull his hands away from Erik’s. Erik held tight to him.

“I know.” he said. Charles rested his head against Erik’s shoulder. Normally, it was romantic. Then it probably meant he wanted to rip the flesh out of his shoulder. “Yes, dear, I know you’re hungry.” Charles was scratching at his hands, nails too short to break his skin for sharpness but the constant pressure was nearly drawing blood. “You can scratch me all you like, Charles.” He didn’t mind. He had floated himself and Charles’ wheelchair roughly ten feet off the ground. The other infected did not appreciate this. Fortunately, the mutant infected had died when he dropped and entire building on then. Unfortunately, so had many mutants. Charles would have died as well, had he not pulled both of them out. Charles made some awful gurgling noise. “As you’ve told me,” he responded. Another of the infected made the same noise back. “Who asked you?” The others fell quiet. He stroked Charles’ hands gently. 

“Eghk.. Erghk..” he gurgled. 

“It’s alright dear, you don’t have to talk.”

“Erghk.. Erighk.. Er.. Erik,” Charles said, actually managing the world.

“What? Did you say Erik?” he asked, startled. He began to unbend the metal around Charles’ head.

“Don’t!” Charles said, and Erik listened. 

“Oh my God- oh God- Oh Charles- What’s happening?” asked Erik. 

“Poghk.. Powers..” Charles muttered. “Sometimes.. I can…” he started to just make noise again. “So hungry..” 

“I can feed you- I’ll find you something-”

“No,” he insisted. “Only.. It’ll.. Only make it worse..” 

“That’s a sentence! That’s a sentence, Charles!”

“I’m getting…” He made more noises that weren’t quite words, but Erik didn’t care. “Stron.. Stronger.” 

“What do we do? What can I do?” asked Erik. 

“We need to get these things away from civilians,” said Charles. “I can’t-  _ you  _ have to. Protect the living, Erik.. And don’t ever take this thing off me- no matter what I say.”

“Alright,” said Erik. “I can do that. I’ll do that.”

“All the-”

“ _ All  _ the civilians, yes, Charles,” sighed Erik. 

“We need a place for them to be- somewhere  _ stable. _ ” 

“I get it, I get it,” Erik sighed. He flew up further and looked around. It was time to start building. 

  
  


They wouldn’t be able to stop Logan once he turned completely, and they couldn’t escape Kamar-Taj without Stephen being able to make spells. They were all starting to panic. Loki and Kurt could teleport away, but Kurt wouldn’t and Loki wouldn’t without Thor. Tony moved back and forth, unsure of what to do. 

“Could you do it with any body?”  Tony asked him.

“Yes?”

“Could you take someone out of their body and use their body?” asked Tony.

“Yes,” Stephen confirmed. 

“Stephen, use my body,” Tony offered. He hadn’t thought about how that sounded until it was too late. 

“What?”

“Use me  to cast the spell!” Tony snapped. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Tony insisted. Stephen glided to him and pressed and hand to his chest and suddenly he was forced out of his body. He watched Stephen’s ghost slide into it, a little bit too tall to fit completely right. Tony floated next to them watching Stephen adjust to Tony’s body. The cloak wrapped around his shoulders. Stephen opened up a portal quickly, and lifted his own corpse, bringing it to him. The cloak flew to Stephen’s corpse, holding it close. 

“I can hold it off for a while but I can’t do this forever,” hissed Logan. 

“We need to get rid of him,” said Loki. 

“What can you survive?” asked Stephen- Tony. 

“I can heal back a lot.”

“Okay, if I banish you to the Dark Dimension do you think you’ll survive?” asked Stephen.

“It doesn’t matter if I live or die this is about the rest of the world!” Logan snapped. Stephen opened a portal right then, a very different kind of portal, and tried to banish Logan into it, but he stuck his claws into the ground.

“What’s he doing?” asked Thor.

“Resisting!” Stephen snapped. He crawled back out of the portal and lunged at Stephen. The cloak wrapped around Tony’s body, dropping Stephen’s corpse and Logan tore at the cloak with his claws, cutting through it like wrapping paper. He jammed his claws into Tony’s body through the cloak. Thor ran up and kicked Logan into the wall, and the wall nearly collapsed. He ran at Thor, who punched him in the face. 

“Thor be  _ careful!”  _ Loki snapped. He turned to Kurt. “Kurt who could destroy him? Quickly?” Loki asked. Stephen couldn’t keep either portal open anymore. Tony flew to him and stuck his head through the blanket, checking on Stephen and his body.

“Are you alright?” Tony asked.

“You’ve been stabbed several times but I can heal it,” said Stephen. “I think your arc reactor saved us both.” 

“What can I do?” 

“I think maybe-” Kurt stuttered as Thor continued to kick back Logan. 

“I don’t care who it is go and get them now!” Loki snapped. Kurt vanished quickly. Thor kept kicking back Logan.

“I can handle this,” Thor informed them. 

“I can trap him!” said Peter, sticking Logan to the wall with webs. Logan cut threw them and launched himself at Peter. He clawed Peter and then bit down on his leg just as Thor kicked him in the head. His body twitched but eventually his head started to grow back. 

“Oh shit,” Thor said. Peter screamed and clenched at the bite.

“Oh fuck, oh no- No, please, I don’t wanna die,” his voice broke. “Mr. Thor, break my leg off, please, Mr. Thor-”

“I can’t-”

“ _ Break my leg off _ !” Peter begged. “If you don’t I’ll  _ die. _ ” 

“We can fix it, Peter!” snapped Stephen, gradually getting up. “You don’t need to break off your leg-” 

“Just do it!” snapped Peter. 

“We’re not doing it- I’ve lost a leg and you’re not ready for that- the spell can-” Logan came back at Stephen and the cloak wrapped around him again as Logan stabbed him again. Thor ran back and splattered his head again. 

“Alright, let’s do it this way,” Loki sighed. He forced Stephen’s soul out of Tony’s body and replaced it with his own, pushing Stephen into his. Loki started to use his own magic to heal Tony. “Now you do the spell to fix Peter before he turns! It’s more likely to work then.” Thor continuously curb stomped Logan each time he healed. Stephen ran to Peter in Loki’s body and then cast the spell on the wound, which gushed a black fluid and then closed.

“How do you feel?” asked Stephen. 

“I dunno how I feel I just kind of-” 

“Well are you feeling hungry?” asked Stephen. Peter paused.

“No but I feel like I might throw up.”

“It works!” Stephen exclaimed. 

“Good job brot- er.. Stephen?” Thor said. “This is weird.” 

“You could say it’s a little strange,” Tony joked.

“Stop,” Loki said. “Or I’ll let your body die.” 

“Alright- alright,” Tony said. “What a buzzkill.” 

“We need to find the others and start curing people as fast as we can,” Stephen said.

“Okay can we at least make Stephen’s body relatively not dead? I know he won’t be physically able to do anything but he’ll need that later.” 

“I can try,” Loki said. “Take your body back, Stark,” said Loki. 

“We can do this forever if I have to,” Thor told Logan. 

“Can we fix him?” Peter asked, pointing to Logan. 

“Try it,” Loki told Stephen. He attempted the spell again, and Logan collapsed, gushing the black goo that came out of Peter’s leg from every pore of his body. The more Stephen tried the more of the black goo came. “What is the spell?”

“It banishes illness from the body,” said Stephen.

“We need something to get it out of the brain I think,” Loki said. “This is a start, we can stop infections.” 

“Alright, let’s go. We’ve made progress. We just need to figure out how to get it out of the brain.”

“We have to get rid of Logan,” said Thor, kicking his head in again as he continued to try to attack. 

“I can banish him,” said Stephen. “Since it doesn’t seem anything can kill him.” 

“Then how do we get him back?” 

“Trap him in here the way that you trapped the others in the sanctum,” Thor suggested. Stephen cast the spell quickly, and Thor splattered him for the last time before the rest of them left, the tattered Cloak still clinging to Stephen’s body as Loki gave Tony his own back, stretched, and went to Stephen’s to work on healing him. They moved quickly forwards, Tony holding close to Peter, still distinctly feeling the pain of Logan’s claws. 

 


	9. Quiet

When they got there, nothing was there but Logan’s disturbingly deformed corpse and liquid metal next to it, mixing with a thick black goo. Natasha looked around.

“What the hell happened? They were supposed to meet us here?” said Bucky.

“I don’t know but it looks bad,” said Natasha. “We need to leave. Something happened. There’s blood.” 

“Where to now?” asked T’Challa.

“You need to take care of Wakanda,” Shuri reminded.

“I know, but we need to help the rest of the world so we don’t lose Wakanda. The quicker it’s closed off and contained the less likely it is we will have to deal with it. Shuri, if I’m going home then so are you.”

“Brother!” 

“You  _ have  _ to,” said T’Challa. “Don’t make me use my authority as King.” 

“Fine,” Shuri sighed. 

“It’s good, this way less of us can get infected,” Natasha added. She wanted the Wakandans to be safe just incase they were infected as well. She collected Sam, Bucky, Ross, Wanda, and Vision. The Wakandans got off in Wakanda with the dozens of survivors they had picked up. 

Wakanda was being flooded, and there were way too many people for their infrastructure to hold permanently. They had to find a new place for them to be, and soon. They headed back to New York. They all noticed it immediately. Almost all the buildings in New York were at least half ripped off and the whole thing was morphed together into a massive building, held up by curious tendons. 

“What the fuck is that?” asked Sam. 

“That’s… We need to go see what it is,” Natasha decided. They flew the Wakandan ship up to the massive building on top of the metal towers. They landed on top of the building, and looked around before getting out. There were people everywhere, walking around as if things were normal, setting up shops and chatting. They turned to the ship, and then started to run away from it. Then the ship began to fall back, being pushed. Natasha ran forwards and turned on the blasters, turning them up as high as they could go. It still wasn’t working. Natasha looked out the window. She slammed her hands against the window again and again, hoping that whatever was pushing them would realize they were alive- if that would even stop it. It worked. The ship was pulled back up, and set on the ledge. The group got out of the ship gradually. 

“None of us are infected,” Vision said. 

“Well then, welcome to Charles Xavier's Fort for uh-.. Fort,” corrected the man. 

“Father!” Wanda yelled, and ran forwards, hugging him.

“What?” asked Vision.

“Wanda- Oh God, thank God you’re alright,” the man cried, holding her close.  

“That’s your dad? You have a dad?” asked Natasha. 

“Hello,” Vision said, walking up to him. “I’m Vision.” 

“Vision- dude - no,”  Sam tried to warn.

“I’ve been dating your daughter for a while now and I wanted to introduce myself.” 

“You have a  _ boyfriend!?” _ Her father snapped. Vision smiled and stuck out his hand, trying to shake his hand. There was a tense moment where Wanda’s father just glared at it.

“Father, be nice,” Wanda said softly. He sighed, and took Vision’s hand.

“If you ever hurt her I will crush you like a soda can,” he hissed into Vision’s ear. 

“I also want to protect Wanda from any harm,” Vision confirmed happily. Natasha figured Sam decided to attempt to help Vision.

“Anyways Mr. Uhh.. Maximoff? I’m Sam. I’m your daughter’s  _ friend. _ ” 

“Natasha,” she introduced herself.

“Bucky.” Kurt walked up to Mr. Maximoff and began to tell him something. 

“Hey wait! Weren’t you supposed to be with Logan and Thor and Loki?” Sam asked.

“Logan was infected,” Mr. Maximoff told them. “Kurt came to me for help. By the time we got back to Kamar-Taj no one was there but him.”

“Was he alive- well, undead, when you got there?”

“Yes, that was the problem,” he said. “I pulled the adamantium out of his body. It killed him.” 

“Pulled it out?”

“I am the master of magnetism- I can bend magnetic metals by-”

“Watch yourself,” Sam whispered loudly to Vision. 

“So does anyone know where the others went?” asked Bucky.

“No. However, we have made extreme progress here,” said Mr. Maximoff. 

“Progress?”

“We can cure the minds of the infected, but not the bodies, it’s separate. We can’t get the disease out of them but we can help them reclaim their minds.” 

“We?” asked Natasha.

“Well, technically Charles can. He’s a powerful telepath.” 

“Charles Xavier?” 

“Yes,” said Mr. Maximoff. “We just need to keep infect down and gather the infected together. We also need someone who can rebuild Cerebro so he can send his brain waves through all of them. It won’t last forever if we can’t cure their bodies as well, but it’s a start.” 

“Tony Stark could rebuild Cerebro.”

“Or Hank Pym,” added Sam. 

“But Hank went into hiding and hasn’t come back. He probably won’t until this whole thing is over for the sake of his survival.”

“We can find Tony, and if he’s dead we can find Pym.” 

  
  


Thor and Loki decided the best course of action was to go to Asgard for a cure for the minds of the infected. However, there was something that had to be done first. Though Loki didn’t care much about it, Thor believed that it was important to be there for them. Tony’s body was still hurt and Peter couldn’t do it. Thor set Stephen’s corpse on fire. He wasn’t sure who was the most disturbed by it. Tony figured it was Stephen, sitting in the astral plane as he watched his own corpse burn, but Peter was crying. Tony put an arm over his shoulder. 

“We must go now friends,” said Thor. 

“Strange.. I wish I was able to fix your body. It’s very unfortunate I couldn’t,” Loki said. Loki gritted his teeth. “I regret that for you.” Tony figured it was the closest to ‘I’m sorry’ they would ever get from Loki. 

“Thank you for saving my life,” Tony said to Loki. 

“Oh.. You’re welcome,” said Loki. 

“We will return with the mind cure!” promised Thor. 

“I’m sure you will,” said Tony. There was a long pause. Thor called to Heimdal, who opened the Bifrost and let them go back to Asgard. They stood there for a while, the heat from Stephen’s burning body keeping them warm as night began. “Where are we?” Tony asked Stephen. 

“A farm my family had when we were children,” Stephen said. “Or the general area. We’re in Nebraska- no one is out here. Just us.” 

“Ah.”

“We’re safe.. Ish.”

“We need to get contact with the others,” said Tony. 

“Let’s find a place to sleep first, we’re near the farm,” said Stephen. Stephen, Tony, and Peter made their way through the wheat or corn or whatever it was to the farm house. Stephen floated into the house, looking around for anything in it. He finally came out and floated to them. “There’s no one in there, it’s safe.” Tony and Peter broke in and walked through the front door and Peter found a couch and  passed out on it. Tony sat down at the dining room table. 

“That was distressing.. We didn’t even have time to take the spell.”

“I have a photographic memory,” said Stephen. “I won’t forget it.. But unfortunately…”

“Unfortunately?” Tony asked. 

“I don’t have a body Tony,” said Stephen. “I can’t cast spells and there’s a good chance that..”

“That?”

“I’m not certain and I don’t want Peter to worry about this- alright?”

“Of course,” Tony said.

“I might fade out of existence if I don’t have a body for extended periods of time,” said Stephen. 

“Fade out of existence?” 

“It’s exactly what it sounds like,”’said Stephen. Stephen made a noise similar to a sigh, but he didn’t have lungs anymore. He couldn’t  _ sigh.  _ He continued to blink even though he didn’t need to.

“Stephen, are you breathing still?”

“Breathing? Well, uh, no? I keep.. I keep making the movement and I feel it but I can’t. I can’t breath,” said Stephen. “I can still panic about it though,” he said, laughing a little. 

“It’ll be alright,” said Tony. He walked through the house and found an oven mitt, putting it on the table. Stephen slipped his hand into it and Tony held the outside of it. “I can fix this.”

“I believe in you, Tony,” Stephen said. That was good. Because Tony didn’t. 

 


	10. Reserected Undead

The arc reactor. It was about three in the morning when Natasha realized how they could find Tony. His reactor would give away where he was. They just had to find a way to find the reactor. She went back to the ship in the dead of the night and called Shuri.

“What’s going on?”

“We need to find Tony,” said Natasha. “I think if we use the arc reactor we can.”

“Yeah, I could, but that would be needlessly complicated and I could just track Peter’s spider suit.” 

“That’s.. A good idea,” Natasha said. “If they’re still-”

“Together? You think Tony would let Peter go anywhere without him, in  _ this  _ world?” 

It took Shuri about thirty minutes to make the tracker. She woke up Bucky and Sam, but figured that leaving Wanda with her father was a good idea. He didn’t seem very stable to Natasha. Something was off. For instance, the way that he reacted to being called Mr. Maximoff told Natasha that his name was not Mr. Maximoff. But Wanda seemed to genuinely believe this man was her father at least. And his immediate reaction to Vision told Natasha he believed he was her father too. So what was he hiding? She would find out eventually. She went to him- whoever he was- and told him of their plans.

“So.. who all is going?” he asked.

“Myself, Bucky, and Sam,” she explained. He relaxed. “Anyways, thank you for letting us stay here Mr… uh?” She said, hoping he would fill in the blank.

“Lehnsherr,” he said. Natasha recognized that name- he was somebody. Somebody that she had heard of which was bad. Whenever Natasha had heard of someone it meant they were dangerous. 

“So… Was Maximoff their mother’s name?” asked Natasha. 

“No, their mother gave them up without so much as talking to me,” said Mr. Lehnsherr. Lehnsherr. What had he said when they first met? She remembered something. She had been so tired, emotionally probably. She could deal with a lot of stress but looking at pieces of her friends as they tried to eat her was a bit extreme. Lehnsherr. Master of.. Something?  _ Magneto.  _ She finally put it together. Damn she was tired, how had she not realized it? It was three in the morning though. Three thirty? It was too late and she was too tired. Besides, he seemed to be working for Charles Xavier now, so he wasn’t exactly a threat. Who cared if he was Magneto so long as he was helping? 

 

She,  Sam, and Bucky headed out. She flew  the ship, Bucky listened to Shuri as she navigated, and Sam watched the monitors and reported to Shuri. They continued to fly through the air, over hundreds of miles of grass and buildings. 

“You ever heard of Magento?” asked Natasha. 

“No?” Bucky said. “Is this guy a problem?”

“Yeah he’s a problem, the X Men’s problem,” said Sam. 

“I always had an interest in mutants,” said Shuri. “I wanted to meet one, to study them. I think I could recreate their powers, and maybe isolate and improve the x-gene-”

“He’s Wanda’s father.” 

“What? That old dude?”

“Yeah,” Natasha said. “His name is Erik Lehnsherr. He’s Magneto.”

“I mean that explains the tower a lot.” 

“I want to see this tower,” said Shuri. 

“You will someday, probably,” Natasha said. 

“So is Magneto? Like what’s he going to do?” asked Bucky.

“I don’t know. Looks like he’s being helpful so I don’t care so much.” 

“Alright,” said Bucky. 

“You’re getting close,” said Shuri.

“Thank you so much Shuri.” 

“It’s no problem. What are you getting Tony for anyways?”

“He has to rebuild Cerebro,” said Sam. 

“I could do that,” said Shuri.

“We know you could, but he’s building it for a little old man who wouldn’t be able to understand it once you improved it,” said Bucky. 

“Well thank you,” said Shuri. “But I could explain it to him-”

“Do you know what Cerebro is?” asked Natasha.

“No.. Do you?”

“No, we don’t either, we hoped you did,” said Sam. 

“You’re here,” said Shuri. 

“The farmhouse?”

“Yeah,” said Shuri. “He’s in there.” 

“Alright, let’s go get him,” said Bucky. They parked in the corn field and got out slowly.

“There’s a lot of ash here,” said Sam. Natasha looked through the dark piles of ash, and noticed something. 

“There’s a body,” she said, walking to it. She crouched by it. 

“Missing a leg,” Bucky noted. 

“Judging by the tunic,” said Natasha, “It’s Strange.” 

“Do you think he was infected or just died?” 

“I’d bet on bloodloss,” said Bucky. “Lost a limb.” They walked towards the farmhouse more cautiously. They knocked on the door. 

“Wait- let me look at it,” they heard someone say. 

“That.. sounds like Strange,” said Natasha. “Something is wrong.” Suddenly, Strange stuck his head through the door.

“Ghost!” Bucky yelped and tried to punch him. 

“Wait- I’m an astral form not a ghost-” he said as Bucky’s fist went through him. 

“Are Peter and Tony here?” asked Natasha.

“Yes,” Strange said. “Why?”

“Charles Xavier  has found a way to fix the mental aspects of the infection,” said Sam. “But he needs Tony to build a machine that can help him do it.”

“He found a cure to the mental?” Stephen asked.

“Yes.”

“We found the cure to the physical! There’s a cure!” Stephen yelled, flying back through the door. They shoved their way in and looked around the building. Peter ran up and hugged them. 

 

Tony decided to ask Shuri about it. She could do that couldn’t she? Make Stephen a working body or something? Something he could possess? He sat next to the hollowgram and explained the situation.

“So I would have to build a body? Does it have to be a flesh and blood body?” asked Shuri.

“No,” said Tony, “He can possess inanimate objects he just needs something to possess.. He needs to be able to do magic though,” said Tony. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“I can figure it out,” Shuri promised. “Just work on the Cerebro thing.” 

“Thank you, Shuri.”  He sat next to Peter and held him close. Peter fell asleep on his shoulder. Stephen floated close to him, ghostly arms holding him. He could swear that deep down he felt it. He tried to kiss Stephen’s ghost cheek and failed again. Fine. When Shuri built the new body he was going to kiss him a thousand times over. 

  
  


The moment that Stephen said he could cure the physical aspects of the sickness Erik demanded that he go straight to Charles and cure him. Stephen explained he needed a body to do that, and Erik was nearly furious. There was a cure and yet they couldn’t do it? For some stupid reason they just couldn’t do it? 

“Wait, who can you possess? Anybody?” asked Erik. 

“Yes?” Stephen said, “Any one I possess will be temporarily in the astral realm, and then I can give them back their body.”

“So if I volunteered you could possess me and then cure Charles?” asked Erik. 

“Well yes-”

“Do it,” Erik said. 

“I.. Alright?” The ghostly hand pressed against his chest and he was pressed out of his body, the world around him feeling like tv static, and for once he couldn’t feel the metal around him. Everything was numb, and he couldn’t feel anything. It was bothering him. But, the sorcerer pressed a hand to Charles’ shoulder and muttered an incantation. Some black goo dripped from the helmet morphed around his head and he coughed a few times.

“Oh my God,” Charles said. “I think.. I think it worked.”

“It worked?” Erik exclaimed. Stephen pulled himself back into the astral plane, swapping with Erik.

“Be careful- there’s still a chance that he could have some of the infection, since his mind was cured and he could talk before- he might still be infected.” Erik ignored that and warped the metal and took the mask off. 

“Wait!” 

“Don’t!”  Of course he ignored them, ignoring people might as well be another mutant power he had he was so good at it. He rubbed his hands over Charles’ head. 

“Hello Charles,” he said. Charles lunged up and for a second his heart stopped in his chest. What had he done? He had to take care of Wanda he couldn’t be bitten he would drop the tower for sure- Charles’ arms wrapped around his back and he pulled him down to his chest. He shook for a moment until he felt Charles’ heart beating. He fell nearly to his knees and he pulled himself closer to Charles. 

“Hello, Erik,” said Charles softly.

“It worked… It worked…” 

 


	11. Electromagnetism

Tony worked day in and out on Cerebro, Charles telling him everything he knew and Erik flew around and got Tony all the pieces he needed. It was working well, he though. He continued to build more and more, until he wasn’t sure how long it had even been. 

“You’re doing good, Tony,” said Stephen. Tony turned to him and immediately realized that Stephen was barely there. 

“Stephen what’s happening to you?” asked Tony. “Are you fading away? How long has it been? Where is the thing Shuri said-”

“Yes, Tony, I’m fading, but you can finish this-”

“Where is the-”

“We’ve lost contact with Wakanda and we don’t know why,” Stephen informed him.

“Why did you never tell me? Who told you not-”

“No one. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to distract you for this,” said Stephen.

“What will happen?” asked Tony.

“I don’t know,” said Stephen. “But it matters less than the world.” 

“Stephen-”

“I shouldn’t have come but I don’t have much time and I needed to.. I just had to talk to you before whatever happens happens,” said Stephen. Tony tried to hold his hands but failed. 

“Stephen put me in the astral plane I need to hold you.”

“Tony, I don’t know if you could even if you were in the astral form.. Just finish Cerebro,” Stephen said. 

“What did you come here to say then? Just to tell me you were dying?”

“Tony.. I just.. This is sudden and I know that but I don’t have time I just… I love you,” said Stephen. “And I wanted to tell you that before… I don’t know if it’s death or something worse but…” 

“Stephen take me out of my body right now,” Tony demanded. “Put me in the astral form right now.” Stephen pressed his chest and pushed Tony out, it taking much longer with how weak he was. Tony grabbed the thin ghost of his face and kissed him. “You have to find some way to hang on if I keep building this thing, alright? You have to-”

“Tony-”

“I love you too and I’m not losing you,” he insisted. 

****

There was a giant flash of light, and suddenly everything started to slump. Everyone ran out and looked around for what was happening. Natasha ran to the surface level of the tower and realized it was failing, falling and crumpling.

“What the hell is happening!?” she yelled.

“We are back, but unfortunately-” Thor began. 

“The tower! The tower is falling!” yelled Sam. Something was very wrong. Natasha ran, trying to find Magento. 

“Wanda!” she yelled.

“What’s happening?” Wanda yelled.

“Where is your father?” 

“Follow me,” said Wanda.  Wanda and Natasha ran to Magneto, who was writhing on the ground. 

“Erik!” yelled Charles. “Erik what’s happening?”

“Oh God,” Natasha muttered. “I think it’s the electric currents-”

“Electric currents?” asked Wanda. 

“Thor, he brings electricity with him- he’s the God of Thunder- could it be that?” 

“The electricity from Thor must have affected Erik’s magnetic fields,” said Charles. 

“The tower is falling,” she said.

“Falling? Oh shit-” Charles muttered. They heard something crunch and heard a loud static noise. “We have to hold this thing up and get Thor out of here!” 

“Ey! Ey! Guys there’s a Wakandan ship coming our way and it’s falling!” Sam yelled.

“Vision’s down too and I can’t move my arm!” yelled Bucky. Erik forced himself to his knees, still unable to get up. 

“Cerebro,” he hissed. “We’ll be pushed back to the beginning with it.” 

“We need to save the tower!” Natasha said.

“We need to save the Wakandans!” Bucky snapped. 

“Vision is-”

“He’ll be fine!” Sam said. “I’ve got him.”

“What’s happening?” Thor yelled. 

“Thor can you hold up the tower?” asked Natasha. 

“Yes,” Thor said. “Of course! Why?”

“Do it!” Thor nodded, and ran off, jumping down to catch the tower. “Right now would be a great time to have Bruce here,” Natasha muttered. 

“Okay well who can catch that plane?” Sam asked. 

“Tony doesn’t even have his suits anymore, none of us can, Strange doesn’t have a body, Magneto..?”

“He can’t even stand,” Charles hissed. 

“Wanda can you catch that plane?” Natasha asked her. 

“I can try,” she said, running out. 

“Someone go check on Tony and Cerebro,” Natasha snapped. 

“On it,” Bucky yelled. 

“Alright, how can we fix the magnetic fields things?” Natasha asked Charles. 

“I don’t know,” said Charles. 

“Well if the sudden electricity affected the magnetic fields then…” Natasha began. She didn’t know, she wasn’t a scientist. She wished Bruce was there. She wished Shuri was there. She looked from Charles to Erik to the ground. What did she know? Thor had some kind of electric field which did something to Erik’s magnetic field and now he couldn’t hold anything up. He was hurt. So could they heal him? What would happen? She didn’t know, but she had to do something. Who could heal him? She walked out, not bothering to tell them to stay there. She looked around. Who did she have? Strange could heal, but he didn’t have a body. Thor was back, so did that mean Loki was? “Loki!” she yelled. 

“What?” he snapped.

“Come here,” Natasha called. He walked over to her. “You can heal right?”

“Yes.”

“Alright look, the reason this whole thing is falling down is because there’s a man with the ability to control magnetic fields who was holding it up and when your brother came here his electric fields messed that up and I think he physically hurt-”

“You want me to heal the magnet man?” asked Loki.

“Yes,” said Natasha. Loki followed her, still seeming a little begrudgingly. Erik was still trying to stand, clinging onto the side of Charles’ wheelchair. 

“Erik, stop,” Charles said, “Just sit-” Loki walked to him. 

“The one on the ground?” Loki asked. 

“Yeah,” Natasha said. Loki put his hands on Erik’s shoulders and attempted to heal him, shocking them both. 

“Ow! Damn,” Loki said. “Alright I know what to do about this, Thor did it to me once too just not quite as extremely. We need Thor to shock him again.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea-” Charles began.

“What do you know about Gods and magic?” Loki snarked.

“I don’t know about that but I know about science and I know about Erik-”

“Well unless he’s pathetic he’ll survive it if that’s what you’re worried about,” said Loki. 

“I’ll be fine,” insisted Erik.

“You don’t know that,” Charles said. “You can’t even stand!”

“Neither can you,” Erik muttered. Charles hit him in the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper. 

“Thor has to hold up the whole thing-”

“What is happening?” T’Challa demanded. 

“We almost died!” snapped Shuri. 

“Shuri! Thank God you’re here-” Natasha said. “Alright so this is Er-”

“Magneto!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah this is Magneto and Thor came down here and his massive electric field messed up Magneto’s magnetic fields and this whole tower is falling and all of our tech is down,” Natasha explained. “What do we do?”

“Alright where is Thor?” asked Shuri.

“Holding up the tower,” Natasha told her. 

“Alright, I think it’s the sudden overflow of electricity,” Shuri said. “Magnetism is related heavily to electricity- which is how we get the word electromagnetism. Anyways- the overflow of electricity ended up changing the direction of the electromagnetic flow which caused Magneto’s own magnetic fields to swap so that the fields that were supposed to attract metals to each other began to repel them and the fields that were meant to repel metals starting to attract them and the sudden change actually probably caused some internal damage to him.”

“Okay,” Natasha said, not really knowing what any of it meant but that the magnetic fields were messed up and Magneto might be injured. “What do we do about that?”

“Are you aware of how your magnetic fields repel or attract on a conscious or subconscious level?” she asked Erik. “Because if you’re conscious of it you can swap them back and if you’re not we’re going to have problems.”

“I have to focus, a lot,” he said. 

“That is blood,” Charles said. Erik was bleeding, a little blood dripping from his mouth.

“This is bad,” Shuri said. “That’s a sign of internal bleed-”

“I bit my tongue really hard when I fell,” said Erik. 

“Alright so Erik needs to focus on turning the magnetic fields around?” Charles asked. 

“Yes,” said Shuri. 

“Will that fix the tech stuff?” Natasha asked.

“Probably not.” Charles put his hands on the sides of Erik’s head. 

“Erik do you trust me?” asked Charles.

“Yes, just do it,” he said. There was a pause in which nothing seemed to happen until there was a loud crunch. 

“The tower is holding itself!” yelled Thor.

“No thanks to you,” hissed Erik.  

“Thor come back we’ve fixed the tower-” said Shuri. Thor lunged up.

“Wait Thor no! No electricity!” Loki yelled.  Thor landed softly. 

“Why, what’s wrong?” 

“What the hell is going on?” snapped Tony, barging in.

“Tony! Good to see you again.” 

“Cerebro is down- everything is- Oh God, Shuri, you’re here, alright do you have the thing?”

“What?”

“The thing the thing for Stephen!” Tony snapped. He did not look good, his whiskers growing out past his goatee and his eyes made more prominent by the deep circles under them. 

“Yes but we have a problem- Thor and Magento’s electrical and magnetic currents respectively have caused serious damage to all electronics in the area and it won’t work Tony,” she said. “It’s broken.” 

“We have to unbreak it and now!” Tony snapped. “Stephen’s fading he won’t exist soon!”

“Does anyone actually know what happens to a faded soul?” asked Shuri.

“No one alive,” said Tony. 

“What about the undead?”

“I don’t know- maybe Wong knows maybe-”

“Well I know where souls go,” said Thor. “If you die in valiant combat then you go to Valhalla! Well.. After Ragnarok all souls will go to Hel and we sort of had to cause that to defeat Hela… So Hel. He’ll go to Hel probably.”

“He’s going to  _ Hell?” _   
“Yes, land of the dead,” Thor said. “It’s-”

“Actual eternal torture Hell?”

“No,  _ Hel. _ ”

“I have seen souls go to the soul tree, that’s where my ancestors are,” said T’Challa. 

“So it could be Hell, a magic tree-”  Tony began to panic.

“Wait, Tony,” said Natasha. “Look that’s the Asgardians and the Wakandans- Stephen’s a sorcerer it might be something different- we  _ don’t know. _ Plus there could be a spell or something that fixed it.” The cloak of Levitation sulked around Tony’s feet. “Cloak! Do you know if someone’s soul can be bound to something? Or if some spell magic thing can help this?” The cloak stretched up the way it would if it was on someone’s shoulders and it moved its colar back and forth like a nod.  “Yes? That’s a yes!”

“Can you do magic?” Tony asked it. The cloak shook its colar. 

“No..” 

“Tony!” Stephen’s voice called. “Tony fix Cerebro!” 

“Stephen, where are you?”

“I’m almost completely faded, but Tony, just trust me. Please Tony,” said Stephen. “Trust me.” 


	12. Replacing Flesh

T’Challa took control quickly and started to sort everything out. Thor, Erik, Sam, Bucky, M’Baku, and Natasha would go out and search for people on the ground and in the sky. Shuri was making adjustments to Cerebro so that the living could be tracked down by Charles. Tony was emotionally distraught he couldn’t function. 

“You, blue men-” T’Challa said to Loki and Kurt. “Go and take care of him.”

“I can’t exactly-”

“Well do something!” snapped T’Challa. Loki and Kurt went to Tony’s side. 

“Come on now, it’ll be alright,” Loki said. “It’s fine.”

“He  _ died _ . This isn’t fine!” snapped Tony. The cloak wrapped itself around Tony’s shoulders. “There’s nothing left of him.. Literally nothing,” Tony sobbed. 

“Well it’s possible we could force the soul back from wherever it went,” Loki said. “I just don’t know how.”

“He was a wizard right? Aren’t there other wizards?” asked Kurt. Tony nodded. 

“Then we can talk to the other wizards,” Loki said. “There was his friend back at the sanctum.” Tony gradually stood up and the cloak wrapped itself around his shoulders like a blanket. Loki took initiative and teleported them there himself. 

“You can teleport too?” asked Kurt.

“Yes. How did you not know this by now?” 

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Loki ordered. 

“I’m sor….” Kurt didn’t know what to say. Loki guided them through the sanctum.

“Holy shit, Tony what the hell happened?” Rhodey asked from where he was laying on the floor.

“Did I eat somebody? Please tell me I didn’t eat somebody,” Bruce said weakly from under Thor’s hammer.

“I’d free you but none of us are worthy,” Loki assured him. He kind of liked Bruce. Thor liked Bruce and Loki, though he’d never admit it, liked his brother. So he had to enjoy Bruce’s existence on principle. Tony had started to talk to Rhodey so it was up to Loki. He sighed. It was up to him then. He walked to the door where they had likely trapped Wong again. He opened the door. 

“What the-  What happened? Where’s Stephen?” Wong asked. 

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

“What do you mean?” 

“Do you not remember?” asked Loki. “Genuinely?”

“No? What am I supposed to remember?” he asked. 

“They don’t remember anything that happened between being bitten and now,” Loki decided. 

“How do you know?” Kurt asked.

“I know the Hulk doesn’t normally eat people,” said Loki. “And Bruce hopes he didn’t eat anyone, whereas Wong, who was bitten when it started, doesn’t remember it at all.”

“Wow,” Kurt said. 

“Where is Stephen?” Wong asked again.

“Alright- so during this whole apocalypse thing- you’re aware of that, right?” Loki asked.

“Yes, but not how far it got.”

“Well, you were bitten you attacked Stephen and scratched him. You didn’t turn him and he trapped you here because he was unable to kill you.  Ultimately you escaped and the virus spread throughout the Sanctum- the only place we thought was safe from it. I left, Stephen had to cut off his own leg, and the rest of them left to Kamar-Taj and Stephen’s body died there. They burned it in.. Somewhere?”

“We burned him in Nebraska,” Tony said softly. 

“In this time our Ironman fell in love with your wizard.”

“What does any of this have to do with where he went?” asked Wong. He glared at Tony. “Why do you have the cloak?”

“I’m getting there,” hissed Loki. “In using the spell that cured this apocalypse Stephen destroyed his own soul. We don’t know where it went or if we can get it back but we want to. Because Tony is nearly useless he’s so sad.”

“Fuck off, Loki,” Tony hissed. 

“You’re with the wizard now? Where’s Pepper?” Rhodey asked. 

“Where.. Where is Pepper?” demanded Tony.

“Why would I-”

“Your brother was with her! Erik was with her! She’s.. She’s probably at the tower,” Tony said. “That’s what I thought but-”

“She’s dead,” Loki said.

“Undead?” asked Bruce. “Like we were?”

“Look if you kill someone when they’re infected they stay dead. Forever. Pepper is dead,” Loki said. 

“How? How did this happen?” Tony demanded.

“Do you want to know that or do you want to know if we can get Stephen back!?” snapped Loki. 

“We can,” Wong interrupted. 

“We  _ can? _ ” Tony exclaimed.

“What about Pepper?” Rhodey asked.

“We can’t fix that. We can’t fix Stephen’s body either,” said Wong. “We can only bring back his soul.” Rhodey patted Tony on the shoulder. 

“It’s gonna be alright,” he said. 

“Kurt take Rhodey back and tell T’Challa we need Thor to move the hammer off Bruce then get Bruce,” Loki told him.  

“Okay,” said Kurt. He left abruptly, leaving behind a  cloud of smoke. 

“How can we get Stephen back?” Tony asked.

“We have  a chance of being able to draw his soul back here and forcibly attach it to an object if we go to the place he died. His soul will be closer to the mortal realm there,” Wong explained. 

“Alright,” said Loki. “Then we’re going to Kamar-Taj.” 

  
  


Tony had forgotten about the blood that still stained the walls of Kamar-Taj. Wong’s eyes were wide with shock as he looked from one bloodstained wall to the next. 

“This was..” Tony began.

“My home,” Wong muttered. “I grew up here…” He said softly. He shook his head. “Where?” 

“What?”

“Where did Stephen die? Exactly.” Tony walked through the halls and found the cot. 

“He stopped breathing and  his pulse stopped here,” Tony said, looking at the cot. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. Stephen  _ died  _ there. 

“Alright,” said Wong. “We need to pick an item to bond his soul too incase we do manage to get him here.” 

“What should we pick?” asked Tony.

“If it’s not got a mouth he won’t be able to talk, like the cloak. We’re essentially making him something similar to the cloak.” 

“So if it is something that has a mouth he can speak?” Tony asked.

“Yes,” said Wong.

“We need something with a mouth,” Tony said. “So… What do we do?”

“Get it, and then we’ll see if we can draw him back.”

“Alright,” Tony said. “I’ll get something.”

  
  



	13. Pieced Back Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This thing is almost over! Thank you to whoever stuck with it the whole time or found it and read the whole thing!

The two of them sat in front of the ruins of the mansion, not even talking. They just sat there, numbly. Erik held Charles’ hand, thumb rubbing over his knuckles. Charles sighed defeatedly.

“Erik.. After all this… I’m going to quit.”

“Quit?” asked Erik. “Quit what?” 

“This. This whole back and forth, our fighting, the battles between mutants and humans and everything else. I’m going to retire,” Charles decided. There was a long pause.Charles didn’t know how Erik felt and decided not to probe into his mind. He would just leave it alone. He felt relaxed, in a way. He didn’t know where the other mutants were and who was and wasn’t dead besides himself, Erik, Logan, Kurt, and Wanda. Erik lifted a hand and quietly began to fix the mansion. It flew back together flawlessly, as if it was a puzzle being put together instead of a whole building being meshed back from pieces. “I suppose you’re not then.”  Charles didn’t want to make Erik feel like he had to, but he really really wanted them both to retire. The two of them to retire together and just be happy together and not bother with the missions and the pain and any of it. Nothing more. Just be a normal elderly couple. Sort of. As normal as they could be. He decided to leave Erik to fixing the mansion. He turned and focused on moving the wheels of his chair away, but he was stopped suddenly as the whole thing was lifted into the air and he was placed back next to Erik. Erik held his hand. “Erik-”

“I’ll go with you,” Erik said. “I just want them to have something once to come back to. Their leader is going to be gone. They need something.” Charles sat there and smiled just holding Erik’s hand. He leaned his head against Erik’s shoulder. Erik kissed his cheek. He squeezed Erik’s hand. 

  
  


It had been a prototype, a long time ago, but it worked. The body parts of it worked anyways, the artificial mind had never finished. That was fine. It would have a new mind. Loki begrudgingly helped him teleport back and forth between Kamar-Taj and various buildings so he could complete the body. They finally got back to Kamar-Taj with the complete body. Wong was preparing the spell already. Apparently it was a complicated one. Tony felt the cloak wrap tighter around his shoulders. They laid the body on the cot where Stephen’s had died. 

“Leave,” Wong said.

“Leave?”

“I can’t have you two here while I do this,” He said. “It could result in the spell going wrong.”

“How far away-”

“Just go in the hall,” Wong instructed. They walked out.

“Do you think it’ll work?” asked Tony. 

“I don’t know,” Loki sighed. “We’ll see what happens.” There was a long pause and they heard something. The cloak darted away from them and pressed itself against the door. They waited. Tony really hoped Stephen was  still himself. He didn’t know how any of it worked, what it would mean. They waited for what felt like forever. Then he heard a door open.

“It worked,”  Wong said, “Sort of?” 

“Sort of?” asked Tony.

“It’s difficult to explain, he’s back, he’s in the body, but he’s panicking over the distinct differences between and a flesh body and a metal body.” 

“Can I see him?” Tony asked as he walked forwards and pushed passed Wong towards the door.

“I don’t think you’d even listen if I said no,” Wong sighed. “So sure.” Tony walked to his side, watching as Stephen moved unnaturally, trying to make the robotic body breath. Tony had given it eyelids, sort of like a lense cap on a camera. He blinked, the lenses coming across the eyes in a swirl. It was kind of uncomfortable to look at. Stephen didn’t even seem to notice him. Tony put his hand gently on Stephen’s shoulder. He hoped the pressure senses worked. They seemed to, as Stephen reacted, nearly violently. 

“Stephen it’s me-” Tony said. He paused for a minute, and Tony could actually hear him scanning over his features. “Stephen please-”

“Tony,” Stephen said, and Tony relaxed. It was somewhat creepy that the machine was sort of impersonating Stephen’s voice. They sounded the same. He wondered if Stephen’s soul was doing it. Then he started to worry that Stephen only recognized him because the machine would. Because he programmed it to. 

“Do you remember me?” asked Tony, putting his hand on Stephen’s cold face. Stephen wrapped his arms around Tony quickly. 

“How could I ever forget  _ you? _ ” Stephen asked him. Tony kissed the general area of his mouth, and quickly realized that Stephen physically couldn’t kiss him back. He would have to work on that. Stephen held him close and petted his hair. The cloak wrapped back around Stephen’s shoulders, somewhat happily. “I can’t breath,” said Stephen.

“You don’t need to.”

“I just feel like I do,” Stephen said. “I feel like I need to breath.”  That was the first time Tony ever noticed that the cloak of levitation made movements as if it was breathing as well. It had been someone once, Tony guessed. 

“I can fix it,” Tony said. “I can make this whole thing better. I can make things similar to lungs, they could even be useful, I could use them to cool your systems or something. I’ll fix this for you.” 

“You’ve already done so much for be Tony,” Stephen said. 

“I want to do it,” said Tony. “What makes you happy makes me happy. You make me happy,” Tony told him. Tony stood up gradually, helping Stephen stand. 

“It feels so… I don’t know how to explain it,” said Stephen.

“You could say it’s a little.. Strange?” Tony asked, grinning.

“I am going to shut myself off,” Stephen said.

“You’re not an iphone you can’t just press your off button,” Tony told him. “You’re stuck with me and my puns.” 

“I’m glad to be with you, always,” said Stephen. “The puns I’ll just have to live with.” Tony kissed his chin. 

“I should not have made you taller than me,” sighed Tony.

“The breathing thing is important but you had better give me some way to kiss you back without pinching your skin,” Stephen said. 

“Alright,” Tony said, gently rubbing his face. “I think I might try to recreate your facial hair with fridge magnets.” Stephen made a very unusual noise and Tony thought he was malfunctioning. “Are you alright?”

“You’re funny,” said Stephen. “You made me laugh.” 

“Oh,” said Tony.So the machine didn’t mimic him perfectly. That would be alright. He could fix that. He didn’t want to make Stephen perfect, he just wanted to make him perfectly Stephen. 

 


	14. After

Several Years Later

 

Shield and the Avengers were a lot to deal with, and Natasha had a new level of respect for Nick Fury ever since she had taken over the agency. She had to control them and gather the Avengers back up. Ultimately the larger group had absorbed the X-Men as well after the retirement of Professor X, and for a while she was concerned about the new villains but ultimately after Magneto retired as well a lot of the organized groups that had been against the X-Men devolved and were absorbed by other groups the way their enemies had. The school was still functioning, and the remaining mutants from the original team were trying to keep it functioning smoothly. Cyclops had been sent out to deal with the outbreak when it first began, and due to his powers had been the oldest member of the team who was still working, so most of the responsibility was put on him. 

Natasha got another phone call, taking a deep breath, she answered it. She heard someone yelling on the other side of the phone about something rampaging down town  _ again.  _ It turned out it was Juggernaut again. He was really irritating. He was very difficult to deal with. She decided the best team to deal with him was Thor, Nightcrawler, and Deadpool. Thor had the ability to contain him, Nightcrawler had a very low likelihood of being injured by him, and Deadpool had to occasionally be thrown in on a mission to keep him from getting bored so he stayed on the team. He had been so desperate to be an Avenger and yet now it was hard to keep him on the team. She sighed. At least she had both her eyes to help her. 

 

Tony had adopted Peter, but couldn’t bring himself to tell him for a long time. He had to eventually. He had to tell Peter what exactly had happened to his Aunt May. Peter knew that she had died, but Tony had never told him that  _ he  _ had killed her. Peter was an adult now. He deserved to know. Tony sighed and sat down on the couch. Stephen sat next to him.

“This is big,” Stephen said softly. 

“I know,” said Tony. “I know.. I just.. I have to tell him. I remember how I felt when I found out what Bucky did to my parents, and I really think that if I had been told it sooner instead of finding it out myself that I wouldn’t have been so hurt. And I know Peter deserves to know.” 

“It’ll be alright,” said Stephen, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Tony got up and walked to Peter’s room. He knocked on the door. Peter came out.

“What’s up dad?”

“Peter I need to talk with you,” Tony said. Peter’s eyes were wide and Tony knew that face- the face of a kid who was recapping every bad thing he had ever done in his life. “You’re not in trouble or anything.” Peter relaxed.

“Oh, oh okay,” he said. They walked to the kitchen table. 

“Peter, there’s something I have to tell you, because I don’t want you to hear this from anybody but me. I.. You deserve to know.” 

“What..? What is it dad?” Peter asked. Tony took a deep breath.

“I know you are aware that your Aunt May was killed during the outbreak,” Tony began. “But… Peter… During the outbreak, a long time before we knew there was any sign of a cure.. I had to.. I saw her there and I didn’t know… Peter.. I was the one who killed her.” There was a silent pause between them and Peter nearly cried.

“ _ You  _ killed my Aunt?” he whimpered. He looked at his hands for a second. “It was when you went to get my suit, wasn’t it? When you found Ned-” Peter was close to tears. “If you hadn’t needed to get my suit-”

“Peter, no,” Tony said. “None of this is your fault. None of it.”

“You  _ killed  _ her.. You just.. How? How could you!?” Peter cried. 

“I thought I had to,” said Tony. “And I panicked and.. Peter… I am sorry.” Peter got up and ran to his room, slamming the door. Tony sat at the counter and and sighed. 

“It’s gonna be alright,” said Stephen, holding his shoulders gently. Tony leaned back against his chest. 

“I hope you’re right.” 

  
  


They heard an ice cream truck going through the town, and telepathically Charles asked Erik if he wanted to get some. They rarely had verbal conversations unless they were in public, there wasn’t much point to it and despite being a changed man, Erik still vastly prefered mutants to humans and enjoyed it when Charles used his powers. Erik stood up and stretched and Charles knew that he agreed. They walked outside gradually, as quickly as the two old men could. 

“Ah, we missed it,” Charles said as the ice cream truck started to move. Erik started to grin. “Do not.” Erik levitated himself up slightly and reached his hand out and yanked the two of them to the truck quickly and continued to draw them to it until it stopped again. “You know how ridiculously obvious that was?” Charles said.

“Yes, well mutants are accepted now aren’t we?” Erik said. Charles rolled his eyes at him as obviously as he possibly could. They got their ice cream and started to head back. Charles was of course, completely capable of rolling himself around, but Erik seemed to like to push his chair. Charles just said that he wasn’t allowed to constantly use his powers to move the chair. Erik agreed to that and just pushed him around normally. They got back to their small home and they settled back down. Erik sat next to Charles and held his hands gently. 

“Erik what are you doing?”

“What? Am I not allowed to hold your hands.”

“I know you’re doing something,” said Charles. 

“Very intuitive of you,” said Erik. “I was trying to be subtle enough you wouldn’t notice.”  Erik gave up and just dumped Charles from his chair into his lap where he cuddled Charles, occasionally kissing his eyebrow or nose. 

“Very affectionate today,” Charles  said. Erik wrapped his arms around Charles and put his head on Charles’ chest. 

“You should be used to this by now,” said Erik. 

“Ah! Erik,” Charles yelped. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Erik.

“Your whiskers are poking me- you need to shave.” 

“Mmhmm I was thinking about growing a beard.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, just because I could.” 

“Don’t lie to me,” Charles said. 

“Well you already know,” said Erik. 

“You don’t want people to recognize you so much,” said Charles. 

“I did a lot of things when-”

“A lot of things?”

“Tried to destroy humanity fairly regularly and tried to kill your X-Men sometimes.”

“And threatened to destroy the planet multiple times.”

“You understand then,” said Erik. 

“Somewhat,” said Charles. “Just be careful with those whiskers.” Erik prickled him again with the whiskers. “You’re doing that on purpose!” Erik laughed.

“You don’t need to use your powers to know that,” Erik said. 

“Looks like you might still be evil after all,” Charles joked trying to push Erik and his whiskers away. 

“You will never escape!” Erik said, squeezing him closer. 

“Don’t make me use my powers on you!” Charles warned. 

“If you do it to me I’ll do it to you,” Erik told him. Charles used his powers to make Erik release him and Erik stuck Charles to him by magnetising his belt buckle to Erik. 

“Erik!” yelped Charles as they both fell down to the floor. 

 

Tony sat quietly at the dinner table. Stephen had to go, some sort of magic mission required him to leave, though he didn’t want to. He could still do magic, which was fortunate. He was pretty sure Stephen would go insane if he couldn’t. Tony looked down at the table and he clenched his fists. He took a deep breath and shook as he exhaled. He wished that he could fix it all- go back in time and not do what he did- but that was obviously impossible. He had fucked up. That was nothing new. At least Peter knew. Peter knew and he found it out from Tony instead of someone else, instead of looking into it himself and feeling deeply betrayed. He would figure it out eventually, even if  Tony had never told him. He would have found out about it. The repulsor rays were unmistakable. He was lucky that Peter hadn’t found out before. He rubbed his thumbs on his forehead. He heard a noise.

Peter sat down next to him. Tony decided that he had something that he wanted to say, so he waited for Peter to say something first.

“I..” Tony looked up at Peter. “It really hurts.” 

“I’m so sorry Peter.”

“I know.. I know that you’re sorry and.. I… I don’t know how to feel. I just.. I’m hurt but I know that you wouldn’t.. Just do that to me…” 

“Peter what you feel is completely valid and I understand,” said Tony. “I know you’ll be hurt.. It’s alright. I’m.. I am so sorry, Peter.” The silence was deafening and Tony had an urge to just scream to stop it.

“Who… Who killed Ned?” asked Peter. “Who killed Pepper? Who killed Wolverine? Who killed them?” Peter asked. “Who killed the shield agents?” Tony paused.

“I don’t know who killed Ned. Either Thor or Magneto killed Pepper. I don’t know for sure. I don’t know about Wolverine- I think.. I mean. I think that was Magneto as well. The shield agents were killed mostly by Thor and Loki, but also by me. And Rhodey and Pepper.. A lot of us did.” Peter paused.

“I don’t think that I.. I don’t think I killed anybody,” muttered Peter. 

“I know you didn’t,” said Tony. “You wouldn’t. You couldn’t.”

“I thought you couldn’t either,” said Peter, staring down at the table. “I knew you killed some of them.. But it had to happen. I just.. Did she attack you?”  Tony took a deep breath. He could lie. It would be so easy to lie. 

“No,” said Tony. “She was busy eating a dog,” he muttered. 

“She ate a dog?” asked Peter.

“Yes,” Tony said numbly. “I think she was trying to eat Ned too but he locked himself in your room.”  They just sat there for a while. 

“Did you… Did you adopt me out of guilt?” Peter asked. 

“What? No,” Tony said. “I don’t- no! No! I didn’t adopt you because I felt guilty,” said Tony. “I wanted to adopt you because you were like a son to me and you needed a family- you needed a father and I wanted to be your father.” 

“Are you sure that.. In some ways..?”

“Maybe there was a little guilt but there was a lot more love,” said Tony. “You’re my son, Peter. I love you. You’re my son.” Peter hugged Tony. Tony held him close. “I’m so sorry.” 

“I.. I gotta think about this,” Peter said, pulling away. “You’re…. You’re my dad and I love you but I just.. I don’t know how to forgive you for…”

“Peter you don’t ever have to,” said Tony. “You don’t ever have to forgive me. I’ll always love you just the same. I want you to forgive me- but I don’t want you to feel like you have to. Because you don’t.”

“I want… I want to forgive you but I don’t…”

“It’s alright Peter,” said Tony. “You don’t have to forgive me.” Peter laid his head against Tony’s shoulder. Nothing could ever be the same, Tony knew that. But maybe it could be a new kind of alright. 

“I brought you two some food,” said Stephen, walking in. He sat down, putting the food in front of them both and wrapping his arms around their shoulders. A lot had been lost, but at least he still had his family. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around through this whole thing! I hope you enjoyed the end


End file.
